Dark Horizon
by Bolvar87
Summary: In the Year 2023, humanity lost its last major battle against the Abyssals, with the loss of almost the entire US fleet. Now, 12 years later in the year 2035 the world finally put a plan in motion to take back humanity's rightful place on the sea. Rear Admiral Masaru Yamada of the JMDS and Admiral Bruce Smith of the USN. Can these two different commanders reclaim the ocean?
1. Chapter 1 - Prologue

_This is a non-profit work of (fan-) fiction based on the Web-Game "Kantai Collection". - Please support the original work by Kodakawa Games (Publisher DMM). Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental._

* * *

Oct 3rd 2023  
USS Nimitz  
Pacific Ocean, Midway

'This is the Commanding Officer of the USS Nimitz, to all remaining vessels. Abandon mission. I repeat Abandon mission. All aircraft is to cover our retreat and -'  
'This is bullshit, Admiral! If we stay and fight we wi-' an officer interrupted him.  
'The fuck it is Bradley. I'm not going to sink a nuclear carrier next to an inhabited island. We will fall back and regroup at Yokosuka.'  
'With all due respect, Sir, we just have to wait for one of the other fleets to fall right into their backs and we will- '  
'There are no other fleets, god dammit. They are all sunk - We are the last fleet good old Uncle Sam even has and I'm not going to sink half of it so you can go on bragging to your fiancé. Given that you can even survive on a carrier that can no longer launch planes. Now, if you feel like it, you are free to make them put me on trial when we are back in pearl but for now get the fuck of the CIC'  
'This isn't over yet I -'  
'Security, put that idiot into the brig'

12 Years later.

Dec 20th 2035,  
United States, Newport Naval Shipyard

Suddenly Adm. Bruce Smith woke up. 'That dream again...' he grumbled bitterly.

More than 12 years ago, he abandoned his mission of protecting Guam and instead chose to evacuate everyone, who hasn't already fled at the notion of an Abyssal fleet attacking, and retreated his heavily damaged fleet back to Yokosuka. There he put himself in charge of the last ditch effort to keep the very Abyssals that followed him off Tokyo.  
From that day on people branded him as the Hero of the Human-Abyssal war, although he considered himself to be everything but a hero.

Only few weeks after he returned to the US the first ship girls arrived just as mysteriously as the Abyssals a year before them.  
Essentially those girls were the spirits of long sunken warships, though their exact nature and point of origin remains a mystery even today.  
Unlike conventional warships these girls were way more efficient in killing Abyssals and so navies around the world became only shadows of their former selves with almost none of the lost ships being replaced.  
Of all the world's navies the US was probably the one who still had the largest navy, although personnel became a real problem, due to the danger and people being suspicious of their saviors.

Things came as they had to - outside of sorties, the girls were pretty much confined to their respective naval districts, and almost no human outside the navy actually knew what they looked like, only that new laws basically let them do whatever they wanted. Oh and of course the amounts of food they needed while a good amount of the world's population was starving thanks to the Abyssals.

Due to that, Smith was promoted to Vice Admiral, and put in charge of the US first fleet girls. 'In honor of his duty to the United States and its allies' - which he thought was nothing but utter bullshit.  
Sure the entire shitshow he pulled in Yokosuka certainly had to do with it, yet the main reasons in his eyes was that more than 80% of the US' admiralty was dead, no one really wanted to deal with the ship girls, and his step father wanting to promote himself via Smith.

Then two years after the first fleet girls appeared, the Abyssals bombed the Newport Naval construction yard and heavily damaged or even destroyed the ships in dry dock. - The USS Enterprise would never launch a single jet and the Admiral valiantly fought any plan to bring the Iowa Class back into service, due to the heavy impact their sinking would have on public morale.

In the following years the navies around the world have seen a rapid decline in both budget and personal.  
People neither wanted to die on one of the few remaining ships nor having to deal with the fleet girls, so recruitment was not just going beyond bad, but the USN was no longer able to replace posts emerging from retirements and quittings.  
Nowadays remaining personnel's job is to oversee the fleet girls and their operations, and only serve as a last line defense in case the Abyssals would break through one of the heavily fortified harbors.

Suddenly he was snapped out of his line of thought by a beautiful blonde right next to him.

'They'll be here in a few minutes, Admiral.' the tall blonde girl said softly.

'It is rude to watch other people sleeping.' he grumbled.

'Sorry sir, but you seemed so peaceful. It kind of reminded me of when we first met.'

'Anyway stop that shit and go greet them, Enterprise.'

'Yes, Sir!' the girl saluted and hurried outside of her s office, her rudder heels clonking on the floor.

'And close the fucking door', he muttered shortly before getting up and closed it himself and make himself comfortable in his chair again.

How can one girl be the perfect secretary in one moment and then forget to close a freaking door in another...

Another of the many things that have changed.  
Due to the rapid decline in human personnel, posts such as his secretary where given to ship girls. - After his former secretary's death, Enterprise was the logical choice for it and a damn good one too.  
Things around the base were running efficient and god was she good at paperwork and keeping the Iowas off him.

Smith looked at the clock - 15 minutes had already passed, and he was getting impatient.  
They could have just flown them here with an SSTO, but no. - The Japanese thought it would be safer to let them sail here and have them sail through the Panama Canal instead of using a domestic flight from L.A.

In fact, he would have preferred meeting them at Pearl in a few days instead, but given some of those girls' history with his base he thought it would be better to just load them onto the ship and keep the press away from them until tomorrow.  
Thus he just brought all the ship girls he wanted to take with him down to Newport and had the JMSDF girls meet up with him here.

His worst fear was that all of them were still locked in the past and sour for losing the war, although Fleet Admiral Bradford had assured him that they have been made aware of the current geopolitical situation, and that they will cooperate just as much as the rest of the JMSDF.  
Still, he was almost certain that a lot of them, their Admirals included, will likely pick a fight with him or his men in one way or another. Even if it was just being resentful and condescending bitches.

After another 10 minutes Enterprise finally entered with one of the Japanese ship girls - A rather tall, slightly tanned woman with short-cut chestnut hair and green eyes, wearing an antenna as a headband.

'Pleased to meet you, Admiral. I am the 2nd Ship of the Nagato class battleships, Mutsu. Please don't play too much with fire, okay Admiral?' in a rather friendly flirtatious tone.

Smith grumbled in resignation.

The fuck is with that introduction? Is she trying to hit on me..? At least she speaks English.

'The pleasure is all mine. Where is your Admiral?' asked, ignoring her 'playing with fire' remark.

'Admiral Yamada will be waiting in Japan. Please don't be afraid to ask me should you need anything from us in the meantime. We've been instructed to follow your commands to the letter.' the girl said.

'Damn that guy, he is still the same ass as usual.'

'You know the Admiral?' Mutsu asked in surprise, completely ignoring the 'ass' part.

'Stop being mean, dad.' a voice suddenly came from behind Mutsu.

Admiral Smith frowned as a light brown haired girl of suddenly revealed herself from behind Mutsu who had completely obscured her before.  
Smith glared towards Enterprise who just gave him an apologetic look.

'What the fuck are you doing here?!' Smith asked.

'Dad, language!' she said with both arms leaning on his desk.

This exchange continued for a while, while both of them have completely forgotten about the two ship girls standing there in the room watching the scene. One with bemusement, the other with her palm on her face.

'I'm sorry, Admiral, she must have somehow gotten away from Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. She was already down there when I arrived.' Enterprise cut in.

'Well then you better bring her back to this so called 'Fast battleship''. Carry her if you have to', he frowned.

'Aye sir!' Enterprise said, 'Come on or do I actually have to carry you?' Enterprise deadpanned.

'No, thank you!' the girl stomped out in front of Enterprise who followed.

'*Cough Cough* anyway, you girls must be tired from the long sortie. If anyone is damaged feel free to use the repair facilities. Feel free to ask one of the officers to show you there. Until then, get used to the ship, you will be on it for a few weeks.' Admiral Smith said after clearing his throat.

'I think someone already showed Shoukaku-san to the docks, the rest of us only got minor damage.' Mutsu said while reflecting, ' By the way what is her name?'

'Yuki. Her mother named her like that because there was a snowstorm when she was born or some reason like that.' Smith said while reflecting on the day with closed eyes.

'Oh, Yuki-chan already introduced herself earlier. I was talking about her.'  
Mutsu gently hit her rudder-heels against the floor, indicating that she was talking about the ship.

Smith frowned. Why was everyone asking him that? Iowa and Wisconsin were annoying him for weeks and his officers reported that even the sailors kept bugging them the entire time.  
Sadly for him, he couldn't give a girl he knew no ten minutes the same rude 'Wait until the christening like everyone else you goddamn bitch', he gave Wisconsin the other day, despite his annoyance over being asked the same question over and over.

'We are pulling her commissioning and christening together, so you will have to wait for tomorrow for that... That reminds me, I trust they at least gave you girls proper uniforms to wear during the ceremony?'

'Oh yes the Admiral said something like that. Still what is wrong with our uniforms?' Mutsu said while eying herself.

Smith wondered whether she was serious or joking. Going into her case specifically he'd start with her antenna, as it was the first thing people would notice. Going further down there was also that choker which he still wasn't sure what it was supposed to represent. Next her navel free shirt, which he was sure not only violated regular USN uniform regulations but also those of the JMSDF. Next was the metal belt, which he believed to represent her former hull's bow as you could clearly see the imperial chrysanthemum on it. Said belt held a skirt he doubted would be impossible to shorten any further. Also Metal shoes and rudder like heels. Not to mention her typical otherworldly ship-girl beauty.  
No there was no way that anyone on earth would not be able to identify her as a ship girl the moment they saw her, which pretty much every country in this would want to avoid as not even navy personnel felt particularly comfortable around them.

Suddenly Mutsu stepped up to his desk and put both her hands on it, giving him the most gentle smile.

'If you want to inspect the ship closer please go ahead. But no smoking in the ammunition storage.' she giggled.  
Having been totally startled by the ship girl's sudden approach smith nearly fell of his chair, barely managing to cling to his desk without hitting his chin.

'Goddamn it, stop hitting on me already.' he suddenly blurted out.

Mutsu couldn't hold it back anymore and busted into silent laughter while pounding her fist against the desk upon seeing his reaction.

That ass of a father-in-law sent this tease on purpose.

'Sorry, you are just too much like my sister,' she continued laughing without any sign of restraint but suddenly stopped, 'besides you got a really pleasant aura around you, Admiral, and don't seem to be outward resenting towards us either.

Suddenly she extended her hand towards him and said with an almost angelic smile: 'Anyhow. It will be a pleasure to work with you, Admiral. But please don't play around with fire.'

* * *

It was a cold and dark place. He couldn't see or hear anything around him.  
Just complete and utter darkness.  
He tried standing up but he couldn't. - He was apparently bound to the chair he sat on.  
He calmed himself and recalled his last memory before he ended up here.

It was a sunny beach day, so he decided to have the beach locked down so his ship girls could have some fun in the summer heat.

Complete darkness.  
When he woke up he didn't see a thing, nor could he move.  
He calmed himself and tried to search for the closest memory in his mind.  
He was on the beach, and looked up into the sun. He could hear the voices of his ship girls as they were playing around on the beach.  
He closed his eyes for a while, and their voices became more distant, moving away further and further.  
And then Darkness.

'Finally awake, I see.' an echoing female voice greeted him

'Where the fuck am I?!' he bellowed.

'I am the one asking the questions here.'

The voice was way closer now, and it didn't take long for Smith to see glowing red eyes appear in front of him. Slowly his eyes got used to the darkness until he could eventually see his captor.

His captor was a tall, woman with really fair skin in a short one piece black dress. Her deep black hair went all the way down to her ankles and highlighted. And even if one would ignore the glowing red demonic eyes and the two horns on her forehead, they would have to admit that the best way to describe her was 'beautiful'.  
Of course she was a rose with many thorns. Even without the demonic abominations they usually carry around as equipment it was rather clear that the woman in front of him was an Abyssal warship.  
He wasn't sure as most pictures of Abyssals were either wiggly rather wiggly due to the constant movement on the battlefield or full of water splashes, but he believed the woman in front of him was one of the Abyssal Princesses, although he couldn't tell which one as the only times he actually thought against one, or possibly several, was during Operation Golden Nightmare and the following siege of Tokyo.

'You are hot, but if you want a date you got to get in line, besides I'm not into bondage', he said with a straight face.

'Very amusing.' the princess said in her singing voice, 'Have it your way... I guess this is going to cost you a rib.'

Following were weeks of torture, healing ponds, and being the princesses overall plaything.  
There weren't many at the place he was being held at.  
Battleship, Airfield, Carrier, Armored Carrier and leading them Harbor princess.

Yet, what broke him wasn't the Abyssals. Vice Admiral Bruce Smith wasn't one to easily break.  
One day while strolling through the Abyssal base he found a door.  
Opening it was the worst mistake in his entire life.

He had seen much, during his two battles with the Abyssals. Decks full of blood and intestines, dying sailors that were cut apart by shrapnel or Abyssal equipment begging him for help. But behind that door, was something even more gruesome.

Although there were theories about the Abyssals eating humans, none of them proofed to be true.  
And yet, what was behind that door, proofed not only that those rumors were wrong, but also that they were right.

While the princesses seemed to mainly eat food they raided off ships and civilians, their equipment and the less humanoid Abyssals were another matter. Seeing their equipment's teeth easily tear through recently captured marines hit him hard.  
Not only recently captured, but also, going by teared up name tags, people he once knew. - Some of whom he played cards not even two weeks ago.  
Then the Battleship Princess equipment turned its 'gaze' upon him.  
Smith was frozen.

In all that time, he got tortured, played with and healed up just to repeat that process he never reached a point from which he couldn't recover - until now.  
Eventually he was never eaten, due to the Harbor Princess coming in and easily pushing it away.  
Yet he never fully recovered.  
That day his mental castle has fallen.  
From there on the princesses could easily drag him down into the abyss further and further until they were close to their goal - making the one human who spoiled their plans over and over their own...

* * *

'Damn that flirty Battleship', Admiral Smith exclaimed while kneeling down in front of the latrine.  
Ever since Mutsu had left, he was trapped in the toilet, coughing up his lunch.

Obviously, the Abyssals never managed to reach their goal, and yet from the moment on he saw that gigantic abomination chewing on his men, some form PTSD was pre-programmed.  
Even though he was saved, he could no longer work, and wanted to quit his job, while he was recovering.  
But it wouldn't come to that.

The general sentiment of keeping the ship girls happy in order to ensure that they won't turn their cannons against humanity was the reason the navy wouldn't let him go, and he had to return after a few months of break and mental treatment.  
Still, this episode of his life always came back when he came into direct physical contact with a ship girl, causing him to feel nauseous or even passing out.  
His time with the Abyssals apparently made him far more sensitive to spirits than your everyday human being, to a point where even people who never say a ship girl before might have a good chance of taking their presence better than him.  
The biggest difference however was that for Smith it never changed. No matter how much time passed, his condition wouldn't get better and he slowly distanced himself more and more from his fleet.

His two secretaries, Enterprise and Saratoga, were the closest to him since then, and even with them he made sure that neither would ever directly touch him as even a short graze on his skin would cause him to remember the horrors inside the Abyssals' base.

Once his stomach was finally empty he slowly walked over to his desk and let himself fall into his chair and closed his eyes, still panting heavily.  
Next he picked up the receiver, while pressing a shortcut.

'Sickbay here', a female voice sounded through the intercom.

'Hey', he said weakly.

'Bruce? What is up you sound totally wasted

'Just an overly friendly ship girl.'

'What are you talking about?'

'Never mind that Shizuka. Can you come up here for a moment I feel horrible and I got a meeting in an hour.'

'Are you kidding me? You don't sound like you should be near anywhere, but one of the beds down here'

'Just come up here and bring me something against seasickness or something like that'

'Fine...', the woman on the other side of the intercom sighted in resignation.

* * *

'Why do you take a ship girls hand when you know exactly that you can't bear he feeling of touching a spirit?!', The dark haired Japanese asked in an annoyed tone while examining him.

'What was I supposed to do? Tell her turret was behaving oddly? Blame your father for that overly friendly ship.'

'For example.' she hissed back,' And believe me, once we are in Japan I'll give my father a piece of my mind.'

The slim black haired woman put her hands on her waist and leaned forward a bit with an angry look on her face.

'What?' he asked.

'You should stop leading them, you know? Or one day either of them is going to snap.'

'The fuck are you talking about?!'

'Stop treating them nicely when you don't want to interact with them. In fact if you want to quit, tell the president to go fuck himself. - You do it with your other superiors too. '

'Yeah because either of us would still work in the Navy if that would work.' he grunted back.

'I'm here because we are family...Nii-san', she teased.

'Stop that, Shizuka.'

'Fine... I need to go back anyway.'

With these words, the woman named Shizuka stood up and turned her heels towards the door, but suddenly stopped before closing the door and stuck her head back in.

'Oh by the by. - Unless you want them to think you are a rude ass, you better use honorifics with them, Nii~san.' she giggled and quickly left the room.  
'That goddamn bitch.' Smith frowned, 'I'll make her stand at attention half the day tomorrow.'

* * *

A/N:  
After several years I finally managed to publish this. When reading this a lot of people will probably wonder why it took so long, which brings me to the actual reason for this note: The rating.  
A lot of you will probably wonder why I choose mature, when there are likely fan fictions with a lot more gore out there that still retain their T rating.  
The answer is: Better safe than sorry. I also believe that some aspects of this story can be brought over better with a higher amount of freedom when writing. There is also the issue of me having watched horror movies in grade school (when my parents weren't looking) so better safe than sorry, I guess. ;) .  
On the bright side, you also mustn't expect it getting too gory without prior notice at the begin of the chapter. - Sadly I can only take M rated computer games as a reference.


	2. Chapter 2 - Killer Whale

I personally expect the two Admirals to meet latest around Chapter 4 or 6, though as established last time it's not the first time they meet to begin with. Seems like a long time, but traveling from Newport to Kure takes time, especially considering how only US capitol ships have a full throttle speed equal to their flank speed. Nuclear powered ships could likely sustain flank speed longer too, since they don't need refueling. Disclaimer for the (intended) reference to redacted for possible later use ( ;) ): - Please support the original work by Capcom.

* * *

December 21st (JST), 2035  
Kure Naval Base  
Admiral's Office

Three years ago, Rear Admiral Masaru Yamada was appointed Admiral of the Kure Naval Base - formerly known as Kure Naval Academy -, when his father, Admiral Hideaki Yamada decided to retire.  
Yamada was a man of average height and measured 171 cm, black hair and no beard or special facial features.

However, the more normal he looked the less normal was his upbringing.  
His father was a navy officer with a tendency to imperialistic thinking, while he would suspect his mother of secretly being a mob boss. He had two sisters, one brother in law and one nice, plus several cousins.  
Many years ago, his elder sister fell in love with a certain USN Officer, and married him some time later - much to their parent's dismay. While his elder sister died in an Abyssal attack some years later, his younger sister was trapped in the US where she finished her curriculum and became a doctor in the USN, which she probably got thanks to his brother in law whom he usually just called 'Aniki', despite the latter having told Yamada to stop doing that on several occasions.

In contrast to most other admirals around - with only a few, mostly female exceptions - Admiral Yamada ship girls as persons, rather than mere weapons he can treat however he pleases, and even dreamed about marrying one of his ship girls.

Suddenly Yamada smiled 'I wonder how my sister and Aniki are doing'.

'Aniki?' the black haired woman with reddish brown eyes next to him asked.

Yamada looked at the ship girl, in surprise, asking her if she of all people seriously didn't know.

'I'm sorry admiral, but I don't', the girl dressed much like her sister, Mutsu, answered with a stern expression, causing her admiral to get a smart phone out of his picket and swiping around on the display.

'Here, this is my late sister', he said while pointing at a woman in a wedding dress before letting his finger slide over to the man next to her , 'and this is my brother in law, although he should have a scar above his left eye by now.'

The ship girl examined the man on the picture. If she had to guess he was at least as tall as she was, though still smaller than Yamato, and had a rather good build. However she couldn't tell his height and stature for sure, as this was just a picture.  
The next thing she realized was that the man was a foreigner, a navy officer no less, making her remember how much time has actually passed. The man on the picture had light brown hair, with a hint of orange.  
Then she also saw both her current and her former admiral on the picture. While the latter seemed happy for the couple, the former was probably happier for the bride than the groom. The one next Admiral H. Yamada was probably his wife - Admiral M. Yamada's mother -, while the other younger female was probably her admirals younger sister.

Then he swiped over his screen again a few times and stopped at a picture of his elder sister and his nice. 'That one is rather old too, Yuki is probably a lot taller by now.'

Suddenly his phone vibrated and a message written in Japanese could be seen on the screen:  
 _Tell the old man that he is on my list. - He knows why. - S_

'What was that about?' Nagato asked while blinking in confusion.

'No idea, but apparently, father managed to piss off my sister.' the admiral answered not knowing any more than the sender that this message actually didn't concern his father, but rather himself.

The admiral then walked over to the window, looking towards the rising sun.

'Things will get a lot more lively here soon.', he said with his back turned towards his secretary ship.

'How many more people are we going to have?' Nagato asked, wanting to be prepared.

'Let's see... Assuming Aniki's flagship is some kind of new carrier, it will probably have at least 4'600 people on it. Then there is probably at least one more carrier, plus their escorts.

'That's a lot.'

'One of the carriers will probably anchor at Yokosuka - one has always been there before the Abyssals appeared. Other than that there is also the additional base personnel we will get. I just hope the construction parties can get the new buildings done in time.'

'It's been a while since we had base personnel', Nagato said with a happy smile.  
Of course she'd be happy. Most bases, minus maybe Yokosuka, barely had any human personnel ever since the Abyssals appeared, hence having people around again made her feel rather nostalgic, towards the past as well as the early days of their return.

* * *

'Why does Shoukaku-nee have to sail all the way up there?!' the grey haired twin tail complained.

'Stop whining like a little brat the entire time, CarDiv 5. You are going to embarrass us.' a brown haired girl with a ponytail answered in a stoic, yet slightly annoyed tone.

'Huh?! Who is a brat?'

Meanwhile some destroyers on another table were whispering with each other while watching the scene, saying things like 'Are they at it again?', but quickly looked the other way when one of the carriers gave them a glance.

'Hooo, and you think you are going to fare better', the younger carrier said with a cocky smile.

'The admiral said to get along, so that is what we are going to do', the ponytailed carrier said while picking up some rice with her chop-sticks.

'I mean their Admiral is fine, he is some kind of hero - We were all shown the footage of that battle after all - , but does he really have to bring those girls with him?'

'As I said, don't be too boastful with your overconfidence around him, or you are going to embarrass us all.'

'That's rather rich coming from someone who went major damage within just a few minutes the other day', the twin-tailed carrier said back happily.

'Tche.' The ponytail snorted.

* * *

'The two of you will probably get along rather well though', Yamada guessed.

'Ho?', his secretary sounded.

'Yeah, you are basically the same person... Minus that you can leave him alone with squirrels.'

'How do you know about that?!', the battleship cried out while blushing heavily, just to cough a second later and returning to her usual professional tone, while still remaining a shade of red on her cheeks.

'More importantly, Admiral', she coughed, 'What are we going to do about the fleets?'

'That's not my decision', he answered back to in his professional tone too.

'Pardon?'

'You heard right - Aniki will handle the operations, I'll be in charge of the base.'

'After all what you have done?' Nagato wondered aloud.

'Well, he does have a higher rank than me, plus more experience and most importantly a mobile command platform that won't sink after getting hit once... I hope.' Yamada answered.

'That is...'

'Oh, that doesn't mean I don't have anything to say at all', Yamada assured her, ' I still get the last word when it comes to our girls. There is really no need to worry though, knowing him he won't treat you any different than his own girls.'

'You sure look up to him', the battleship pointed out, 'Is there any particular reason for this?'

'We are family, that's all the reason I need. Besides he was the one who encouraged me to join the navy.'

* * *

Meanwhile, on board of the USN's new ship a white haired girl let out a loud sight while occupying one of the docking facilities.  
'Is everything alright Shoukaku-san?' a brown haired, rather bland destroyer asked her.

'Its fine, Fubuki-chan, I'm just worried around how Zuikaku will get along with everyone. - Especially the Admiral and one of their carriers.'

'Huh, why?' another, larger destroyer with light brown hair and braids held together by a trinket looking like a turbine propeller.  
'Because she was totally thrilled at that battle from twelve years ago they showed us and...' the carrier paused and then continued in a higher pitched voice 'Moue, do we really need Kaga-Zuikaku exchanges with an admiral involved?'

Fubuki looked up in the air and tried to image what Shoukaku just said, but then quickly shook her head and only bought out a slightly uncertain 'ehehehe' instead and instead decided to ask about Shoukaku's worries that her sister might not get along with one of their carriers.

'Well one of their girls actually sank most of us', she answered plainly.

'But isn't it natural that we would meet ships that sank us in the past?' the taller destroyer asked a bit confused, ' I mean you two probably sank a ton of them too, Shoukaku-san. - Your sister must realize that.'

'She does, Terzuki-chan... But that girl is a bit different to her', Shoukaku sighted, 'That girl basically sank Zuikaku... And Kaga and Akagi... And Hiryuu and Souryuu, and probably helped sinking me too... And we all know how competitive my sister can be.'

'Eh?! Even Akagi and Kaga?!' Fubuki jumped up in disbelieve.

'Yes, that's how Zuikaku and I became CarDiv 1 back then... Afterwards that girl continued to haunt us throughout almost the entire war... Every time we thought we had her, she suddenly came back like some sort vengeful ghost.' Shoukaku recalled.

'What does she look like?' Teruzuki wondered.

'If only I knew.' Shoukaku frowned, ' We never really were close enough to one another for me to recall. For all I know we could have passed her a dozen of times on our way to the docking facility.'

Teruzuki put a finger on her lip and raised her head a bit into a thinking position... Going by the description Shoukaku gave, she could only be referring to the Enterprise, so Teruzuki tried thinking back if she saw a carrier that could fit the bill.

'Ooh! I have already seen her', she exclaimed with the other girls looking at her in surprise, 'She was nicknamed 'Big-E', right? So it has to be that girl with the big E on her funnel.'

* * *

'Achoo', an orange-brown haired girl in white suddenly sneezed while walking around the ship with the Iowas.

'Huh? Did you catch a cold, Sara?', a blonde star eyed girl asked a bit worried.

'I doubt we can get colds, sis, another girl wearing almost the same uniform as her said.

'Maybe it's some new ship girl only virus!' the star eyed battleship answered.

'Will you please stop causing a ruckus in the hallway?' the orange-brown haired carrier with the big E on her funnel scolded them.

'Yes, mom!' the two battleships said in unison.

* * *

'We are going ahead Shoukaku-san.'

'Take care you two', the carrier tried to sound as happily as she could.

Fubuki looked at the timer and let out an inner sight. - 23:28:53 left.

Of course Shoukaku would have to fake her smile.  
There was no way Shoukaku's repairs would be done in time for the ceremony tomorrow. It looked like she would have to stay in the dock - all by herself while everyone else would be attending the ceremony tomorrow.  
Fubuki felt sorry for the white haired carrier.  
It was probably less missing the ceremony itself that bothered her. - Which ship would have fun watching another one getting hit with a bottle after all? No what actually bothered Shoukaku wasn't missing the ceremony but being the only one left out, while all the other Japanese girls would attend without her.

'I'll try asking the Admiral if we can get a bucket for you, OK?' Fubuki smiled.  
'Eh? You really don't have to.' the carrier answered, 'I'll be fine.'

'Asking him can't hurt. I'm sure he wouldn't want you to miss it either', she said with confidence.

After Fubuki had set herself that goal, the two destroyers started looking for the Admiral's office on board of the ship, but soon came to realize the gaping hole in their plan.

'Uhm... Fubuki-chan? Do you even know where the Admiral's office is?'

'Aehm...' the destroyer whispered while fumbling sheepishly.

'Oh well can't be that hard, can it?' the Anti-Air destroyer answered.

However, Teruzuki's assessment turned out to be completely wrong. While both of them did notice signs that apparently told them where exactly they were, neither of them could make sense of it, resulting in them getting lost rather soon.  
The worst was that even their radars also seemed to malfunction, as they showed a rather small ship, which was as best as big as a light cruiser, while both of them were sure they have been told that this was a battleship earlier.  
Both of them were frustrated.  
Despite it's supposed size, the ship was currently pretty much empty so no matter what door they tried no one would answer so asking for directions was quickly off the table too and despite having seen several intercom stations on their way, they had no idea how to use them as they looked completely different than their own making them feel like they've landed in some kind of sci-fi movie and by now neither of them was sure they'd find back to the ship girl dock either.

While starting to question whether this quest was really such a good idea, they suddenly came to an abrupt halt when Fubuki bumped into something and fell to the ground.

'Fubuki-chan!' the destroyer said while going over to help her up.

'Can't you look where you are going you fucking tramp', a rather deep and pissed man said.

'I'm so', Fubuki started but was interrupted by another man who seemed to have accompanied the first one'

'Hey Hank, look at that cute light cruiser', he said nodding towards Teruzuki.

'Hoho - what do we have here', he said while getting uncomfortably close to the large destroyer while throwing his friend a rather dirty grin, 'hey cutie don't cha wanna spend some time with us?'

Teruzuki ruffled her nose a bit.  
Going by how his breath reeked of alcohol, it was rather clear that they were drunk, and neither of them looked like they'd accept 'no' as an answer either.  
At first Teruzuki tried the nicest thing she could do and asked them what they wanted from her in Japanese, pretending to not understand what they were saying at all.  
However, much to Teruzuki's frustration, neither of them appeared to care for her attempts to get out of this awkward situation by feigning ignorance, nor for the clear 'no' she brought forward soon after, so the only thing she could do was retreating further and further backwards, as the two drunkards were closing in on her.

However, much to her misfortune, she suddenly tripped over Fubuki, who was finally about to snap out of being dumbfounded by the situation, resulting in Teruzuki landing on her butt.

'Ouch, ouch, ouch', she said while rubbing her back.

Meanwhile, Fubuki, who finally got up, got in between them and tried smoothing the situation over, which resulted in her getting pushed to the ground by the man named Hank, landing directly next to her.

By now, the two of them had Teruzuki completely encircled, leaving her no way to escape.

'Hey Hank, you gotta share those milk buns', the other man said.

'Fine Joe. Take the pipsqueak while you are waiting', he answered, referring to Fubuki, still grinning like a pig.

Teruzuki looked at her options.  
As both of them didn't look like they could run more than 6 meters without getting a heart attack, her first option was trying to get up and the heck out of there, this however would force her to leave Fubuki behind with these two, of whom she wasn't sure whether she could escape on her own.  
Her second option seemed worse.  
While she was confident that she could put up a fight against a one of them, she certainly couldn't against both, plus she was already on the ground and each of them looked like he'd weight almost as much as her equipment.  
The flaw in that plan was the trouble she might get into if she actually managed to hurt them.

While contemplating her options Teruzuki became more and more scared, to a point where she could no longer think clearly and totally forgot about her third option, which was to try summoning her Chojuusenchihou-chans to scare them off.

'Hey, Joe, get your phone cam out - we can use that to make them shut it.'

That moment something inside Teruzuki broke.  
By now she, and probably Fubuki too, got so scared that the only thing she could do was pressing eyelids together, hoping she's be just in a bad dream, she would wake up from any moment and find out she just stayed in the bath for too long and passed out. She wanted to shout for help, but couldn't get a tone out.

'Hey you two, get your asses out of their face', a female voice suddenly barked at them.

That moment a bit of light returned to Teruzuki's eyes.

* * *

'Hey you two, get your asses out of their face', Enterprise barked at the two while crossing her arms.

The two turned towards her looking perplexed. They clearly didn't anticipate someone being in this part of the ship before tomorrow, and truth to be told, it was sheer coincidence that Enterprise took one of her memory strolls, so she would find her way around the ship better in the future.  
Hank's and Joe's surprise quickly turned into anger, when they realized that there was now a witness, making the man named Hank shout, 'what did you little bitch say', back at her.

'Oh... So it was your face after all...' the carrier answered, her sour expression turning into a mischievous smile, 'Sorry, but only an appraiser for abstract art would be able to tell the difference.'

'You little bitch, I'll get you.' Hank and Joe said in unison, now walking towards Enterprise.

'Wow... I thought you two were just drunk as fuck, but you are actually stupid aren't you? So how about this. You go cry to the MPs this instant or you can explain the Admiral why there is an imprint of your asses on the floor of his ship.'

Suddenly the two bursted into laughter, pointing at enterprise while they did so, leaving her dumbfounded.

'Hey Joe, did you hear that? This glorified ghost actually thinks anyone gives a shit about them'

'Yeah that's too epic!', Joe answered and then turned his speech to Enterprise, still laughing so hard that he was almost impossible to understand, 'Please go ahead hurt us, then they'll probably offer us your body to avoid getting sued.'  
 _Shut it_

'You two are really asking for it, don't you? You better shut up before I'll it off. If I there is one to begin with.' Enterprise scoffed back, 'No context. I mean exactly what you think I do.'

'Listen up you dumb bitch! Get it already, your Admiral doesn't give a shit about you! Do you really think that admiral gives a fuck about you?! I mean he doesn't even want to fuck you to begin with', Hank growled while laughing hard.

 _Shut your goddamn traps, or Ill kill you._

'So listen up, because this what's going to happen - we are first going to fuck them and then you. Unless you want us to upload everything on the inter-'

 _Thwack_

Before he could even finish his sentence, two heavy objects smashed against the metal wall only a few meters away from the still shaken destroyers.

Both Hank and Joe cried out in agony, but the only thing that could be heard from them was unintelligible babbling, which was probably related to the blood flowing out of both assailants mouths.

There was blood flowing out of their mouths and by the way the latter held his shoulder it was probably broken.

Enterprise then stepped closer to them, gently pushing them sideways, causing them to pass out almost instant after the spirit touched them.  
'Wow... and they actually thought they could rape them...' I thought out loud before turning her heels towards the destroyers.

But suddenly, E stopped, and turned her head back to the two unconscious men and said,'Oh and by the way, they are both destroyers, you dumbasses.', before she would continue her way towards the two destroyers.

And when Dr. Yamada and a few more people in lab coats arrived, all they could see next to the bloodbath was their carrier, kneeling down next to the two destroyers, comforting and hugging them tightly. - The two destroyers crying into her chest.

* * *

'Seriously, why didn't you two go straight to your quarters', Mutsu scolded Teruzuki and Fubuki who were currently sitting on a leather couch inside the Admiral Smith's office, still tightly clued to Enterprise who was sitting in the middle.

'We just wanted to get a bucket for Shoukaku and got lost and couldn't figure out how the intercoms worked.' Fubuki answered.

'And why didn't you just use your radios to contact one of us?' Mutsu asked angrily, 'you two absolutely didn't belong several decks lower than you were supposed to go'

There was an awkward silence. It was obvious that neither of the destroyers actually thought about that.

Enterprise continued to pet the two destroyers while their flagship scolded them. She felt really sorry for them.  
By Fubuki's reactions to Mutsu's annoyed tone while questioning them, as well as the few moments she could see the Battleships usual self, she could easily guess, that the destroyer has probably never seen her flagship angry before.  
And Enterprise was in fact right.  
Usually both destroyers only knew Mutsu as the nice and caring elder sister type, who had a bit too much fun teasing others - especially Rear Admiral Yamada and her sister, Nagato.

'It's fine really', Enterprise interjected, 'She is a big girl and it's easy to get lost if you don't know the way. Besides, it's totally those two assholes fault.'

'I am grateful to you for helping them, but this is something between me and my escorts. Besides, aren't _YOU_ the one who is in trouble thanks to their plunder?' Mutsu answered a tad irritated.

'I'll be fine...' Enterprise said, turned her head away a bit and then added, 'Maybe.'

'You just said ''maybe'', didn't you?' Mutsu deadpanned, ' Its fine that you want to get along with us, but there was no need to break someone's jaw to proof it! ~ At least you used your radio.'

Then she sighted, and started petting Fubuki's and Teruzuki's heads: 'Still. Thank you for protecting them.'

Just as Mutsu was done scolding them and went from scolding superior to comforting elder sister mode towards the two destroyers, the door opened and Admiral Smith, followed by the red-haired girl with the 'E' on her hair piece entered.

Admiral Smith, who looked rather exhausted, sat down behind his desk, shutting Enterprise up with a glare before she could even say something in her defense.

'I'm tired so I'll cut right to the case:', he started off, 'First of all, even if I had been on the ship, l wouldn't have listened to anything you had to say. So next time you need something, please bring it up with your flagship instead. They can decide whether it's worth bringing it up with me to begin with then. '

Enterprise had a bit of a bitter smile on her face upon hearing that.  
True, this method has proven to be far more effective, as she had already lost count of all the requests her escorts asked her to forward to the admiral, which she outright declined. At first, this rule was only set to target destroyers as theirs were usually the more ridiculous ones, but got soon extended to all non capitol ships, until eventually Admiral Smith would only listen to requests the flagships deemed worthy enough. - Enterprise or Saratoga in case the flagship wasn't at least a heavy cruiser.  
Still it wasn't always like this.  
True, Pearl was still the best base to be stationed on for any ship girl and each newcomer was totally happy about how much their living circumstances had improved, even if it was just temporary, but even that still paled to what it used to be in the past.

Back then, the Admiral was really kind and always polite to them, even when his wife and later his new fiancé died.  
He would also always have candy as a reward for the younger and the more sweet toothed girls when they came back from an expedition.  
But one day something happened, and everything, their Admiral included, had changed.

That is why, she snapped when those two bastards said the Admiral wouldn't care for them at all. Because deep down, she was afraid, that he really didn't, and never did. That everything was just a job he started getting tired of. - His relationship with the late Ari included.

'Second, I'd like to apologize for what has transpired, as this was completely our fault', the Admiral continued.  
Enterprise looked up in surprise and even Mutsu couldn't resist losing her famous 'ara'.

'Those two were apparently fired yesterday already, and the shipyard forgot to rescind their security clearance. Not to mention all the data about the ship we found on their Smartphone's storage devices. In other words: Security fucked up, which makes it my fault.'

'But they were still loitering around on the ship', Mutsu pointed out, making Enterprise wonder on whose side she actually was.

'They got lost, in an over 1083ft long steel giant (~330m) with over 25 decks, that appears MUCH smaller on any radar too - heck they probably couldn't even tell if they were in the fore or aft section. That's really nothing I can hold against them.' he said as he was opening his drawer frowning as he remembered that he stopped that.

Suddenly both Saratoga and Enterprise both pulled a piece of candy, making Admiral Smith frown as he took them: 'I won't ask you two who signed the requisition form for that.', before he handed them to the two destroyers and patted their heads in Mutsu's stead.

'What don't destroyers eat candy in Japan?' he said to the two confused destroyers.

With this, even Teruzuki had finally snapped out of it.  
In fact she found it surprisingly comforting, despite having been initially scared of the American, especially after what happened with the other two. - And Fubuki seemed to share that opinion. Why wouldn't she? Neither of them could feel malice or ulterior motives.

'Thanks', both destroyers said while enjoying their head-padding while the two capitol ships used the chance to remove the rest of the destroyers tears from the corners of their eyes.

'Really you two, next time just kick them and run or something, it's not like any of these two bastards could have caught you anyway. - As long as you don't go on a ball crushing spree every time some drunk that tries to flirt with you, no one will complain.', he said before returning to his seat, not before Enterprise, who gave him a 'what about me', look a warning glare not to actually ask.

In fact, if the two weren't ship girls, patting their heads or even standing up would be something he'd consider something far beyond a bad idea.  
Destroyers in particular though, were best treated and cheered up as if they were one's own daughter - and that was how he used to cheer his own kid up when she was smaller. - Although the larger destroyer was definitely far beyond the age Yuki was, when Admiral Smith last patted her on her head, to cheer her up.

Another side effect of doing that from time to time was it being good way to distract the ship girls from the fact that he couldn't actually touch most of them, although really large destroyers without a too memorable history like Teruzuki were probably the utter limit before he would start feeling effects. - Destroyers with a bit more memorable history on the other hand might be an entirely different story. - Something he definitely had no intention of finding out.

'And now to you.' he continued with a sigh towards Enterprise, 'seriously, as both a human being and as a father I'd give you another battle star for this. But as your commanding officer...'

Suddenly the door opened and Dr. Shizuka Yamada, the ship's chief medical officer, entered Bruce Smith's office.

'How are they?' Admiral Smith asked without ado, putting what he wanted to say a moment before on hold.

'They will live - somehow. But seriously two broken jaws, ten fractured rips and one dislocated and one broken shoulder - you really can't say they didn't get their just deserts. If we'd come one moment later they'd leave sickbay in a bag tomorrow.' Shizuka said, in a rather professional tone, although her looks towards Enterprise gave off a slight hint of approval.

Smith sighted annoyed at his CMO's antics, and winked her over.

'So, did you make it hurt?' Smith whispered to her, once she arrived at his desk.

'Well you know how it is, the launching is tomorrow, so we were unfortunately missing the right amount of pain killers and had to substitute them with weaker ones, until some were brought over', Shizuka 'lied' silently.

'Atta girl.'

Shizuka smiled a bit and then looked to Enterprise and spoke up in a normal tone.

'Really now, next time you decide to go Batman on someone, do it at a time where I won't miss dinner.'

The Admiral frowned, telling his CMO off, as he was just about to scold his secretary ship when Shizuka entered.  
Shizuka excused herself, and walked out of the door, but not without making one more cynical comment. 'Oh by the by Bruce. A certain LA Aquarium called - They want their killer whale back.'

Shizuka's comment left the room with a number of different reactions as the door closed.

While the destroyers and Smith were speechless Enterprise blushed. Mutsu and Saratoga on the other hand both formed an open fist to muffle their chuckling until Smith stared both of them into silence.

In the end, Enterprise punishment was postponed until further notice.

* * *

'So what got you so agitated?' Saratoga asked Enterprise while water from the shower rained down on the two carriers.

'You mean besides those two cute destroyers almost getting raped by those bastards?' Enterprise answered while shampooing her hair.

'Yes, aside from that. Because even though you are overprotective when it comes to destroyers, losing your cool like that was totally unlike you.' Sara chirped back.

'In a nutshell, according to them the Admiral doesn't give a shit about us because his secretary isn't fuckable enough to him. Also who is overprotective'

'Ouch'

There was a brief moment of silence as the sound of the other shower died and Enterprise suddenly got hugged from behind and groped up.  
'They must have thought the Admiral must be blind then.'

'Hey, stop that!' Enterprise cried out in surprise, 'don't suddenly grab me like that. I also don't swing that way.'

'And neither do I. Also don't worry, I think I got enough displacement to take on our great killer whale if it suddenly decided to attack.' Sara laughed back briefly before getting more serious again, 'But yes, that would have pissed me too. As well as a lot of other girls for that matter.'

'Oh shut up, you mafia princess.'

Both started laughing together.

'But E, shouldn't you know better than listening to those two.' Sara said in a bit melancholic tone, 'Or are you seriously worried the admiral doesn't know how beautiful his girls are?' Sara continued with slight hint self-conceitedness. - Not that she was wrong though. Neither Enterprise nor Saratoga would be able to name a ship girl whose looks weren't far above the ordinary.

'It was more the other part.', E said leaning her head to the side with an expression that was a mixture of sadness and uncertainty.  
Sara sighted and patted Enterprise head.

'You really think he would have wanted to marry Ari if he didn't care? He was also rather good with the destroyers earlier, remember?'

'It's hard not to think about it when she was so different from his wife. Maybe he had to because there was another one of those stupid laws or something. And the destroyers? Come on we both know that was damage control.' she said before brushing the other carriers hand away gently, 'Also stop that.'

'Hm? You really looked like you wanted to be patted on the head too back there though.'

 _m sorry E._

On one hand Enterprise was right, no one knew that one better than Saratoga, who has lost her sister to the very same law Enterprise referred to.  
Countries usually tried keeping their ship girls as happy as possible, in the US, of all countries, however something went terribly wrong during the legislation and the girls could effectively even rip families apart if they wanted to, resulting in a lot of people avoiding them to begin with and only talking to them if they really had to.  
Between that, a lot of people fainting from as much as a touch, and each single one of them being several times stronger than a human, most people were actually too scared, leaving many of them lonely.

Unlike Enterprise and the other Pearl-Girls, Saratoga knew exactly what the problem with their Admiral was. I  
It was simply obvious, and the reason she hated the Abyssals that much.

Back then Sara saw it rather clearly.  
There were exactly two moments the Admiral felt that sick and had to hold back trembling when they saved him years ago.  
The first was when Enterprise wanted to carry him back home.  
The other time was shortly after, while they sailed back when Iowa patted Admiral Smith's back while he was lying down on her turret, which he choose over skiing together with his Secretary back then.

Yet, even though she knew, there was no way she could tell her friend.  
It wasn't that she didn't want to, especially now that she needed cheering.  
It was for the same reason she didn't even tell the person in question himself that she figured it out a long time ago. - Out of respect for the man she once knew.

'I'm going out now', Sara said, and added, 'Just don't forget to clean up properly afterwards, l if you want to continue thinking about missed chances...Orla.' with a mischievous smile.

'Oh shut up, you mafia princess!' Enterprise blushed.

* * *

The girl standing in front of Admiral Smith was perplexed. She had literally no idea why her admiral would call her into his office at such an hour, nor why he was still awake to begin with, considering tomorrow's ceremony and the following passage over the Pacific Ocean.  
She looked at him, sitting there in his chair, his hands folded and wearing a grim grimace.

'It's late, so I'll make this short.' he eventually started, 'You are going to throw the bottle tomorrow.'

'Heh? Why would I want to do that? Its unpleasant and humiliating.' the girl hissed back, which was rather unusual for her.

'Listen up, even if it's not your fault - I've had enough you girl's ship girl bullshit for one day, so you will just shut the fuck up and do what I tell you to, understood?! It is not she will get hurt, anyway.'

'Yes, Admiral', the ship girl frowned.

* * *

December 21st (JST), 2035  
Kure Naval District  
Admiral's Office

'AAADDDMIRAAALLL!' an overly existed ship girl's voice.  
The voice belonged to a dark haired light cruiser, dressed like a weird mixture of a female ninja and an idol in her uniform.

'Up early for a change, Sendai.' Nagato sighed.

'Yeah yeah more but more importantly', she said while rushing towards the Admiral's desk, and looking at him with an exited sparkle in her eyes, 'Is it true that the American carriers night battle?!'

'Who told you that?' Admiral Yamada frowned, having told Nagato to deliberately leaving this small detail out during the gatherings.

'Zuikaku-san said so!', the girl still sparkled towards him.

'Zuikaku...', both Yamada and Nagato dispraised.  
At least both now knew why it was so silent last night. Usually it was upon Nagato to finally enforce order when Sendai shouted 'Yaaasseeeen', the entire night, but last night it was awfully silent - too silent for the battleships liking.  
In other words, Zuikaku wanted to shut Sendai up and probably told her something like 'Go bother the Americans next week, their carriers love night battles!'  
Yamada and Nagato sighted.  
It looked like, they had two very long weeks ahead of them - Thanks to Zuikaku.

* * *

A/N:  
Ad grey/gray: tbh I was pretty surprised when Nimble said that I misspelled grey while the spelling was completely right. It's apparently an AE/BE thing, so please bear with me in cases like that. - In conversations I'll probably make it dependent on whether an American or a European is talking.  
On that note I apparently misspelled Yuki's name, as I was under the impression she'd be written with the Japanese u (you know the one with a line above it). I will correct that one for the first chapter as soon as I find the time.  
The rage scene inspired by a really annoying 'Mission Fail' image haunting the English wiki, - that I really didn't want to play out like that. - That being said, special thanks to the English wiki for the correct spelling of Teruzuki's turrets.  
As you probably saw by now, some ship girls got more description than others, this is mainly due to the fact that they have already been introduced into the game.  
It would kind of bother me to think up a design now and have it completely overthrown by their CGs later in a way that 'remodel' won't cut it as and explanation anymore. - Plus, there is always the chance of E getting implemented during the Okinawa-campaign event. (Whenever that will be).


	3. Chapter 3 - TT-01 Weigh Anchor!

Nelson Class BB confirmed for the summer event!

* * *

Vice Admiral Bruce Smith looked out of the USS Nimitz's porthole in his office.  
It has been almost four years since the Abyssals have beaten the majority of the world's navies and gained control over the sea.  
The USN too was but a shadow of its former self, with only three carriers left, they couldn't even hold up legal requirements anymore, which would sooner or later have to lead to changes in the constitution, as the shipyards had to prioritize ships they could put to the battlefield faster than carriers.  
And although several carriers and two battleships were under construction, but neither of them would see the sea anytime soon.  
Then there were also the plans to bring Iowa and Wisconsin back on the field - a plan he personally disapproved of. Due to the moral blow there would be if either of them sank.

Out of the USN's initial fleet, only the _USS Gerald R. Ford_ , the _USS John F. Kennedy *and the USS Nimitz had survived in a state that didnt require them to get scrapped immediately, while the *Enterprise_ and the _Halsey_ were still under construction, due to several instances of unexpected delays and changes to help them fight the Abyssals better.  
Nowadays, the Navy's main focus was on destroyers and littoral combatants, to keep the Abyssals off the coasts. Carrier groups, such as his task force, were only deployed rarely and generally defended important places, such as the one the Nimitz was currently sailing to.

Pearl Harbor, the Nimitz new home port.  
Apparently, the USN recently summoned something they called 'ship girls', who were supposedly the spirits of the states former warships.  
Somehow, the first few of them somehow managed to already make several of the new admirals quit within just half a year, and now he was called in hoping that they would better accept a 'hero', than some recently promoted Rear Admiral, although he was in doubt it would be that easy.

He looked through the files.  
Apparently his new fleet of misfits consisted of rather big names.

Arizona, the fleet's flagship. Then there were the Yorktown and Lexington sisters, as well as Atlanta to name just a few of them.  
In total he got around thirty of those girls to take care of from now on, and the tendency showed that more were incoming. Basically he was responsible of finding out how to best deal with them, and avoid similar things happening at other bases, once there were more of them.

And going by the information he had, this wouldn't be an easy task. All previous reports stated that pretty much each of these girls was way stronger than any human being, which he assumed was the reason they managed to dance around on their previous admirals' nose that much.

Suddenly his phone rang, and according to the caller ID, the call came from his own quarters.

'What's up?' He asked as soon as he picked up.

'Hey, I just wanted to know when you will be there for dinner.' A sweet female voice said on the other end of the line.

'I'll be there in about an hour - I still have to finish a few things. How are those two holding up by the way? Still sea sick?'

'Yuki and Shizuka are fine for now... But did we really have to travel on the sea with those things around?'

'Don't worry, dear. I got everything under control. It isn't the first time my boys kicked the Abyssals' asses. Right now it's probably safer than air travel.' Smith replied confidently.

'I'm worried,' Admiral Smith's wife said. 'the other wives said those girl's are dangerous. - Be careful OK.'

'Oh come on - those rookies probably just pissed them off. In the minds of those girls it's probably still 1943'

'That's what I'm worried about most...' His wife replied.

Smith sighed 'Don't worry, they are supposed to be guardian spirits. There has also yet to be an incident between our remaining forces at Yokosuka and the Japanese ship girls stationed there, so I doubt any of you three is in danger. You may receive some hostility at first though.'

'I hope you are right, dear' She worried.

'Anyway, I got to hang up, or I won't make it on time to dinner. - We can talk about it later, OK?'

'Later then', she said before hanging up.

* * *

Two days later, the Nimitz finally moved towards its destination.

Admiral Smith looked down the railing towards the dock.  
Apparently there was an unexpected greeting entourage waiting.  
Several exceptionally beautiful women, next to them there were objects neatly put on the floor, which suspiciously looked like a ship's rigging.  
Luckily for him, a lot them seemed to be easy to identify even from afar as their hull numbers appeared to be either somewhere on themselves or their rigging, which is why he could easily make out two girls who appeared to be Saratoga and Enterprise from afar, assuming that they didn't switch their equipment around to agitate him.  
And Smith had to admit, that it would probably work as he didn't bother remembering their faces from the pictures.

Then he realized some of them, the carriers in particular, where waving first towards the ship and them towards him.  
He wondered. - Should he wave back?  
When he finally got around to waving back, all of a sudden the woman spearheading them turned around towards the carriers, which made them stop.

Smith now looked at the woman.  
She was rather tall, maybe a bit smaller than him, really long hair and perfect curves. - All in all she was just as beautiful as the rest of them.  
 _'Hmm...39...Must be Arizona.'_ He guessed from the hull number.

When he decided to wink towards her too, the only thing he gained was punishment through a clear stare of disapproval.

'Sis will get jealous, if you keep ogling them. ~ Want me to tell her?' a teasing voice suddenly said from the side.

'The heck are you doing on the flight deck, Shizuka?' he snorted back.

Shizuka ignored him and instead leaned over the railing, and winked at them too.  
Some of their expressions darkened.

'Wow, they are not cute at all.' Shizuka lamented while taking a picture of them with her smart phone.

Smith sighed while he took the phone away from her, and deleted the pictures she just took.

'Hey!' she complained.

'No pictures of them allowed, this is still a military base.' he said while checking whether there were other pictures she shouldn't have taken. 'At least you listened in regards to the carrier.'

Once he was done he handed an annoyed Shizuka her phone back over. - Probably even the ship girls could see that Shizuka wasn't amused about that violation of her privacy.

'I'll tell sis!' Shizuka threatened.

'Go ahead, get yourself into trouble with your sister.' he replied, 'You have to get ready to disembark anyway, so you can as well try.'

Shizuka then walked off, but not without stretching her tongue out.  
Thankfully the ship girls couldn't see that as they were standing too close to the water to see what was happening on the flight deck.  
They'd be more than enough work without Shizuka being openly disrespectful towards him right in front of them, so her being her usual troll self was the last thing he needed right now.  
He let out a deep sigh and pulled his hat's cap down before he got on his way too.

When Smith left the ramp all of them where standing neatly in three lines, saluting towards him as he walked up while his family walked towards the car. Shizuka on the other hand had other plans, and positioned herself neatly next to him, much to the annoyance of the battleship in front of them, which she voiced the moment Smith told them to go at ease. 'What are the Japs doing here?!' the battleship complained.

 _Sigh_

Slowly Admiral Smith's palm moved over his head to cover his face, while Shizuka stopped next to him with an open hand, probably expecting him to fork over money. 'I told you she wouldn't be decent enough to wait until we can't hear her.' the girl said with a grin causing the battleship to get even more pissed.

'And what is that thing supposed to be?', the Battleship demanded.

'Some say she is my sister in law. I prefer the term ''personal house troll'' though.' Smith remarked while parting with Mr. Grant, only for him to vanish into Shizuka's pockets shortly after.

'We will be waiting in the car, dear.' Admiral Smith's wife said while holding the toddler-Yuki in her arms. 'That includes you', she added towards her sister.  
'And miss this? - Fat chance', Shizuka replied, causing her elder sister to roll her eyes before walking over to already waiting car, where she vanishes in together with the toddler.

'This is a military base, and not some kind of zoo, so can you kindly get the rest of your monkeys out of here too, Admiral?', the battleship continued in a condescending tone.

'I told you, they aren't cute at all.'

What followed was a forth and back between the two girls, neither Smith nor any of the surrounding people, the ship girls included, could stop at this point.  
At first it was just minor insults that were quite frankly rather amusing and partly reminded him on how Arizona was originally a confederate state. However, things quickly escalated into threats when Arizona got reminded of her hulls current state, resulting in a rather scared, and surprisingly timid, Shizuka whom the Admiral quickly pulled behind him.

'Enough now! Both of you.' Smith bellowed. Arizona however had no plans of complying at this point and grabbed him by the jacket in Shizuka's stead.  
It was a rather uncomfortable, almost nauseating feeling.  
For one, he got a full load of touching a spirit, which he got warned about in the reports about the girls. On the other hand there was also what probably had Shizuka scared enough that she had trouble holding her tears back by now. - The sheer amount of hatred and anger directed towards her that was piercing through Smith like X-ray radiation. While merely uncomfortable for him, it was probably devastating for Shizuka who had never felt that kind of negative feelings before.

'Huh? She started it, why are you even defending her over your own countrywoman?!', the battleship shouted back as her grip tightened, making Smith wonder whether she was actually able to control her excess strength to being with.

'Because you are the one looking like an adult out of the two of you.', he said with a calm but annoyed voice, 'Now if you would unhand me this instant, before I forget myself.'

'Huh? And what should happen? - You do realize I'm holding back here, right?' the battleship said while losing her grip completely and her voice turning villainous, 'But fine, since I'm the adult here, there should be no problem if I slap that misbehaving child behind you, right?'

 _'There is no way in hell Ill let you slap her when you cant even control your strength'_ , Smith thought.  
Meanwhile, he also felt his sister in-laws pleading look as her finger nails sunk into his coat. Shizuka was at her limit, and had her legs pressed together while also unable to move.  
Smith was pissed, both at himself for failing to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand, as well as at the two miscreants for escalating it.  
However, at the end of the day one of them was a stranger, while the other was a part of his family. And the battleship, which at least looked like an adult should in his eyes clearly be the more mature out of them, especially considering how she was technically more than 120 years old.

'What indeed... Say can you swim?' Smith suddenly asked with a smirk.  
'I'm a ship - of course I can swim.' Arizona snorted back at the seemingly dumb question.  
'That's not what I meant. I mean like moving your hands to keep yourself above water.  
'Obviously! Who do you think I am?'  
'Good.'

All of a sudden, Arizona had been sent flying backwards and caused a surprisingly large geyser of water to splash down on Admiral Smith and Shizuka. While the other ship girls covered their mouths in shock while the dock workers and ship personnel stopped in their tracks for a moment, but quickly decided that it would be better to resume with their work before they got caught up in it.  
It was true, Arizona was a lot stronger than him, and there was little he could do about her if it came to muscle strength. Yet, thanks to the element of surprise, Smith could easily push her into the water.

'Anyone else need a second launching?' the Admiral gnarled in a still calm but also rather pissed tone.

None of them answered.

'For the last few months, the bunch of you has been nothing but a huge waste of resources, both in terms of food and manpower.  
If you think you deserve a medal for sinking a few Abyssals, you are free to say that to the families of those who died the last few months, while you had nothing better to do than driving one Admiral after another crazy.'

Everyone was still silent.  
It was apparent that neither of them has ever thought about the consequences their actions would bring for other people before.  
Without an Admiral, neither of them got to sortie much. Which in terms meant, the Navy had to send carrier strike groups like Admiral Smith's or even groups consisting mainly out of littoral combatants and destroyers in their stead, which would ultimately result in people dying either during an attack the Navy couldn't respond to in time, or from being at the wrong spot of the ship when it got hit by an Abyssal shell.

Meanwhile a dripping wet Arizona, and definitely pissed off, Arizona returned and grabbed Smith's shoulder.  
'What the fuck do -', she complained but was silenced quickly when Admiral Smith pushed her into the water again, resulting in both Shizuka and Smith getting splashed with water again.  
'You stay in there until you have cooled down.' he said loud enough for her to hear when he sent her flying without even having the courtesy of turning around, and continued his speech instead.

'If you girls are here to fight - Fine, you are welcome. However, if you are just here to bitch and be a general waste of already scarce resources, then get the fuck off my base, because looking at reports on how much you girls eat, when there are people starving in the streets of our cities makes me sick.  
You are on a military base and not on some fucking holiday resort. - Have you girls even considered that there are people who can't even buy a piece of bread while you are freeloading off your country? You got a single chance now: You can either behave yourselves from now on or get the fuck back to wherever you spawned from, because unlike those rookies I won't leave that easily. - Is that clear?'

'Yes, Sir', they all said in unison, while Arizona was still swimming back to the walkway, with Smith still not dignifying her with any form of attention.

'Good, tomorrow we'll do exercises, so you girls better sleep a lot because you got a shit ton to make up for and I don't intend to let you girls freeload here forever.', he ordered them in a loud but calm voice, 'Also, I got enough of your bullshit for today, so you got the rest of it off. If you want to be productive you can start by getting that wannabe submarine behind me out of the water. - Dismissed.'

With these words he pushed Shizuka forward to the car and got in, not giving either of them a second look, but soon stopped for a moment and said something that was clearly directed not to all of them, but rather a very specific person:' Oh and by the by. Fuck with my family and no amount of magical shit armor and strength will save you from my wrath'

'Why are you two soaking?' Mrs. Smith wondered, while the toddler next to her repeated her words like a parrot.

'To make sure no one sees her pissing herself.' he answered, while his annoyance towards the battleship's behavior became more and more visible.

'Poor thing.', she said while attempting to hug her sister, who however slapped her elder sister's arms aside and instead jumped into Smith's chest and cried herself out there.

'Don't worry nothing would have happened. - She lacked any kind of killing intent, so she probably just wanted to scare you a bit.' Smith whispered confidently while cheering her up, 'Though, you being so timid is a nice change.'

'You are a jerk.' Shizuka cried.

* * *

Dec, 21st

When Smith opened his eyes he let out a long sigh.  
He had almost forgotten how badly he got along with the girls when they met for the first time.  
He got up and caught a quick glance towards the picture frames on the wall.

The first one was him with his late wife, together with Shizuka and Yuki, while the second showed himself together with his fleet, years after they first met. Also on that picture were Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, the two German ships he bought off Germany years ago.  
The third and final one only had two persons in it - Himself and his former girlfriend, Arizona. Smith smiled at the picture. It was actually one of the pictures Saratoga took as a memento to a moment where Arizona was less serious secretary and more of a loving girlfriend.

Smith then moved on to the bathroom and started with brushing his teeth.  
He looked at the long scar over his left eye. - An eternal reminder of how he failed to protect someone he loved, although he couldn't even remember whether he had felt any pain when getting it.  
In Smith's mind it was his fault, although everyone else tried telling him otherwise.  
And yet, if Arizona hadn't been busy hugging him so hard that he almost suffocated, she might have managed to dodge those bombs.  
If he just hadn't thought about cheering her up on that day, if he just asked her to marry him on that 7th December morning.

Once he was done, with his morning hygiene he took a final look at the pictures, and smiled.

Smith left the room and walked through the corridor towards his office. Unlike the day before the corridors actually had people in them, all of them busy preparing for the great show and the following embarking.

* * *

'I'm terribly sorry, it's all my fault.' Shoukaku apologized to Fubuki and Teruzuki with teary eyes.

'It's really not your fault, Shoukaku-san.' Fubuki tried to calm her down.

'Besides, we were saved by Saratoga.' Teruzuki added.

'But if I hadn't let you go ask for a bucket, you would have never gotten lost in the first place' Shoukaku continued her apologetic whining.

'Oh come on, it's not like they'll be scarred for life. They are neither humans nor children, you know.' A black haired girl in red and white with a long ponytail added while changing into a JMDS uniform.

'Yahagi is right, they have seen worse from the Abyssals.' Mutsu said while inspecting the uniform that got prepared for her 'If you really can't get it out of your head, then try thanking that carrier.'

'Saratoga-san, was it?' Shoukaku asked a bit unsure.

'Actually, we didn't ask her name,' Fubuki said sheepishly 'but both carriers in the admiral's office were his secretaries, and the one that helped us didn't have the E letter on it. So that one must but Saratoga, she is really nice too.'

'Saratoga-san... I'll make sure to thank her later' Shoukaku said smiling.

'By the way, where is Yamato? I haven't seen her at breakfast either.' Yahagi asked in her usual laid-back manner.

'I think she is with the Americans. They said she's too tall in comparison to the officers Japan has sent, so they'll put her somewhere near the Iowas and some taller American officers, so she is probably eating with them.' , Mutsu said while eying her uniform's jacket in dissatisfaction.

'What?!' Yahagi said in a more serious tone.'

'There is nothing that can be done about that, a girl that tall would inevitably draw attention. Even the Americans still have to use some tricks to make her and Iowa-san look smaller'

'I won't stand for this! I'll talk to... Someone so this outrage can be rectified!' Yahagi said shortly before storming off, barely evading Mutsu's attempt to catch her.

'Want me to catch her, Poi?' A blonde destroyer asked while catching her right hand's fist with her left hand, eager to get something to do.

'I think its fine, Yuudachi' Fubuki said with a faked giggle.

Soon after that the bulkhead suddenly sprang open and a man could be heard shouting in Japanese.

'And don't you dare talk back to me again!' The man scolded while his hand was already halfway in the room pointing towards the lockers. 'Now go in there and don't come out until you wear that uniform!'

'I got scolded by an Ensign...' Yahagi winced a bit disheartened when she rejoined the group. - All but Yahagi giggled.

Once they were done changing, the girls left the locker room and made their way outside, until Mutsu suddenly stopped Teruzuki.

'You forgot something.' she said as she removed the rotors from Teruzuki's hair and replaced them with some hair bands she was given for the destroyer earlier.

Once all visible signs of them actually being spirits were removed the group left the room until the spearheading Teruzuki suddenly stopped and winked towards an American woman heading for the equipment bay.  
'Oh, look there is Saratoga. Hey Sa-' the destroyer began but quickly found her voice muffled by Shoukaku's hand and was pulled by Mutsu, who could do nothing but wave at the American with a forced smile.

However, the woman didn't come over and only waved back while she kept walking and turned around to muster Shoukaku with a disappointed look only after the blonde had vanished behind a corner.

'What was that?' Mutsu demanded while removing Shoukaku's hand from Teruzuki's mouth, so she could finally grasp some air again.

'York...to..wn...' Shoukaku said with a bit of a shaking voice.

'Yorktown?' Fubuki tried to pronounce.

'That girl just now isn't a Lexington, she is a Yorktown.' Shoukaku said with a still shaking voice. 'Saratoga is a Lexington though.'

'Huh, but I could have sworn she was the American Admiral's other secretary.' Fubuki said.

'Really now, Shoukaku I expected better from you' Mutsu scolded her with a frown. 'That was incredibly childish.'

'But she is...'

'The girl that took great care of _your_ escorts.' Mutsu interrupted her. 'Seriously I wonder if we shouldn't have taken your sister instead after all. At least she wouldn't have hid behind me.'

'I just suddenly remembered the sound of those horrible planes...' Shoukaku tried to justify herself.

'Do you see me running away every time someone takes a smoke?' Mutsu asked not very amused.

'You do tell everyone not to play around with fire the entire time though.' Yahagi cut in teasingly

'Poi... You really always do that, poi.' Yuudachi added.

'Come to think of it, she told an American marine to smoke outside yesterday too.' Teruzuki joined in with a smile.

While the light cruiser and the two destroyers continued using this extremely rare opportunity of teasing Mutsu, Fubuki moved closer to Shoukaku.

'You know, Shoukaku-San. I don't think you need to be so afraid, she is really nice.' Fubuki said referring to Enterprise.

'Still... I just... can't', Shoukaku said with a downed head.

* * *

Around the same time the rest of the Japanese fleet was changing into their uniforms, a certain battleship was still sitting in one of the mess halls, eating her breakfast while exchanging stories with the American girls.

'He seriously pushed a battleship into the water?!', the tall ship girl in red-gold and white asked in disbelieve, while also brushing her rather long ponytail to the side as it was bothering her while eating.

'That's what they told Me.', an even taller blonde with star shaped pupils answered, come to think of it he gave some brat a tour through my hull too when we scolded him for climbing onto the turret, and made us suffer through it. Believe me, Yamato that was totally embarrassing.'

Yamato put on a forced smile, when hearing that. Being led through her hull together with visitors was indeed something she would deem embarrassing, yet she wouldn't be able to tell what she would have done in the blonde battleship's situation either as her own hull laid on the ocean ground near Okinawa.  
'I'm sure he had no bad intentions, Iowa-san.' Yamato answered.

'It was still embarrassing!' Iowa winced while finishing her food. 'Huh? Not done yet? You sure eat a lot, Yamato.'

The battleship blushed in embarrassment, to her surprise, the two battleships got along really well, despite their characters being basically the opposite of one another's. Maybe it was thanks to that that she didn't find it really hard to ignore how Iowa managed to butcher her name over and over by putting far too much emphasis on the second a.

Suddenly, the blonde winked another girl, from the looks of it another battleship - or perhaps a carrier -, over. 'Hey Sara, Can you tell her how the Admiral pushed one of you into the water?

'Yeah he did that... Oh my god was Ari pissed. ', the red haired girl giggled.

And so, Saratoga began to tell the story while omitting how it started and why they were fighting to begin with.

* * *

'I can't believe that asshole actually pushed me into the water.' Arizona grumbled while she showered the mud that got stuck to her when she fell into the seabed off.

'Well you were packing him by the coat...' Atlanta cut in but was quickly silenced when Arizona looked into her direction.

'At least you finally found someone who doesn't take shit. That's what you wanted right?' Enterprise sighed as she helped the battleship wash the mud out of her hair. 'Plus... You really overdid it a bit there. You scared the girl to death over something that happened before she was even born.'

'So what? That insufferable brat just reaped what she sow, and I swear you, tomorrow I'll show that guy what a mistake he made.' Arizona pouted still angry.

'Ari, don't you think we should stop and give the guy a chance?' Saratoga said while washing her own hair, 'I'm also starting to feel guilty...'

'Oh come on, Sara. That jackass clearly exaggerated the issue to make us feel guilty. I bet there is enough food to feed every citizen twice over.'

'And what if he isn't?' Sara whispered a bit frustrated and angry with herself, 'People die out there while we are sitting around here, being overly demanding with our choice of an Admiral.'  
But she wasn't the only one.  
Admiral Smith had managed to instill a feeling of guilt within every single one of them, even Arizona, despite the latter not showing it.  
'Maybe Sara is right. If we just keep rejecting them all someone else has to go into battle in our stead.' Atlanta said cautiously, 'I mean... Just think of how many would die if that big one the Admiral arrived in would sink... Could you really live with yourself if that happened just because we have different standards? - I know I couldn't.'

'I know that' Arizona frowned in frustration, 'But that guy is really poor at judging other people.'

'Well he did lose fifty bucks for believing in us', Enterprise snickered with all of the other girls in the shower, Arizona included, following up.

'See you can smile too.' Sara smiled back at her, 'And who knows maybe the girl isn't so bad either once you get to know her better.'

'She isn't the problem.' Arizona answered with a bitter smile,' It's the wife...'

'Jealous?' Atlanta teased her causing the battleship to turn red.

'Huh? Sooner hell will freeze over!' she shouted back, but got suddenly really serious, 'It's just... She feels so...Fake...'

'Huh, what do you mean?' the others asked.

'It's nothing.' Arizona suddenly said back with a forced smile, 'I'm probably just jealous after all... Fine I'll give him a chance, but he'd better apologize tomorrow.'  
The two carriers and the anti-air cruiser looked at each other in confusion. And even when they parted for the night, only the battleship knew what she meant by that.

* * *

'What the heck is that?' Arizona demanded from her new Admiral, 'And where the heck has our equipment gone to?'

'This is the USS Independence, and she will accompany us today. Because honestly, there is no way I'll let you girls train inside the bay. As for your equipment, that is already on board.' VAdm. Smith answered as if the answer was totally natural.

'And why does that little girl have our equipment?' Arizona said with crossed arms while tapping her foot to show that she was still angry at him.

'I told you girls yesterday already, no more wasting fuel on you now that I'm here. The Independence will give us a lift until we are a few hundred miles off the coast. Should you girls manage to make me stop thinking that you are a total waste of fuel, I might even consider allowing you to sail back into the harbor on your own. So get on now everyone.' he ordered the girls onto the ship.

Once inside the trimaran's large mission bay, Saratoga and the other girls started looking around curiously. Obviously neither of them had ever been inside a ship themselves, so they were rather interested in how it looked inside and how ships had changed since their time.

Then she noticed Arizona pulling the Admiral back surprisingly gently, but still decided that it would be best to go over before one of them would land in the water... again, and it seemed Enterprise had the very same idea.

'I'm still waiting', Arizona demanded.

'Waiting for what exactly?' Smith asked in confusion.

'How about for you to apologize for pushing me into the water. - TWICE.'

'You aren't seriously expecting me to apologize for that, do you?' Sara heard her new Admiral ask the battleship.

'Of course I do, she started it.'

Smith sighed, and looked at Arizona with a look of pity. Saratoga and Enterprise could easily guess what he was thinking and hurried up to diffuse the situation, but was came too late and could only follow the two as Arizona dragged the Admiral off with a 'Come with me for a second', before she gently pushed him inside one of the blue containers inside the mission bay.

'What is your problem? She reaped what she sow, and yeah I was pissed off, but it's not like I was trying to hurt her or anything.' Arizona asked, still being ignorant as to why he wouldn't apologize and instead continued, 'I get you are some kind of hero, so I'll forgive you if you apologize.'

'You seriously don't get it, do you?' Smith realized annoyed as he fell back into the chair behind him.

'Ari that's enough.', Enterprise cut in while Sara pulled the battleship a bit away from the Admiral, not without closing the door behind her however, 'Admiral we are terribly sorry about yesterday - **all** of us are -, we really just want to get along, so can you please forgive her and apologize even if you don't mean it?'

Smith however merely let out a long sigh. 'You girls really don't get what the problem is, do you?'

'Then how about you tell us', Arizona challenged him.

'Fine. First of all, she wasn't the one who started it, and you know that.'

'We might have been a bit unfair... but please understand the last thing a lot of us memorize is...' Saratoga started.

'Frankly, I don't give a shit.' Smith blurted out, 'Fine I get it. You two thought them to the death over and over, and she got bombed into oblivion. And as sorry as I am for you, Arizona, none of that has anything to do with Shizuka at all.'

'But sh-'

'Shut it, I'm not done yet', he hissed in the direction of the battleship Sara was still holding back a bit,' Fine here is my opinion as your commanding officer: I don't give a damn where anyone you want to piss off intentionally comes from, just don't. Whether they are a refugee, a tourist or whoever else you want to piss off. Your behavior is nothing less than a disgrace for the USN, and hence I won't let it stand. So unless you want to keep having problems with me, you better start treating people with respect.'

Again Arizona tried to interrupt but as quickly shut off, so Smith could continue his rant.

'Oh and here is a note from me, not as your admiral, but as the girl's family: Have you ever, considered that she doesn't have it easy either? She went to visit her sister over the summer and then got suddenly stranded, thanks to some jackasses suddenly appearing all over the world, making both sea and air travel so dangerous that there is no fucking way I'd send her back on a plane. Do you know how long she studied so she could follow school properly here? - I'll tell you the entire time she was supposed to have off. And, even then she was still stranded in a foreign country cut off from her family and all her friends. Does that sound like an easy life to you?! And then some fucking racist bitch comes along and showers her with 120 years of accumulated hatred, so the poor girl couldn't even sleep. Sure Shizuka can be a brat, and she too went too far there, but she didn't deserve being scared to death over something as silly as what she said. You girls are supposed to be the adults here, don't any of you dare complaining about not having it easy to adjust.'

The three girls stayed silent until Ari remarked a bit gloomy that she just wanted to scare Shizuka a bit, which however got quickly refuted.

'And you really think that some civilian girl that is barely out of high school can tell the difference between that and killing intent? Get out of your dream bubble, because heck, if I hadn't been in this freaking war for two years now, I wouldn't have been able to either.'

Again, Saratoga didn't know what to say after getting scolded by Admiral Smith.  
For the last six months, she and the rest of the ship girls just thought about how hard they had to adapt to the new world around them.  
After all, a lot of things had changed since Saratoga was put out of service violently.  
Everything was different than before.  
Ships still looked the same, but were yet completely different. - She just had to think of the colossal carrier that docked at Pearl just yesterday. And even this small room, looked totally alien to her thanks to the computer behind Smith. She and the other girls were confused.  
Neither of them expected to suddenly pop up centuries after their last memory, in this totally alien world.  
But yet, at its heart the United States were still the same as back then.

Suddenly she was pulled out of her thought when she felt Ari's shoulder started to tremble under her hand, which made her tighten her grip a bit as a warning to the battleship to not do anything rash.  
'You are here playing moral-apostle the entire time, while not even being a real admiral', she said with a bit teary eyes.  
Saratoga and Enterprise looked at one another. Neither of them having any idea about what Arizona was referring to, while Adm. Smith merely frowned as the battleship continued.

'You are some kind of hero, fine. But you are far too young to be an Admiral at all.' the battleship pointed out weakly in rekindled anger,' You were a Rear Admiral back then, right? Unless you somehow managed to enter service with 14, you should have been a Commander-XO at best. So tell me whose cock did you suck?'

'I'm too young to be a Vice Admiral, so what?' Smith answered as if he didn't care at all, 'And frankly I'm tired of hearing it. If you have to know, that fucking son of a bitch I got as a step father is a Senator and couldn't have his step soon as a lowly officer. - And if it was for him, I'd not even be in the Navy to begin with, but some fat assed Army or Air Force general, trying to come up with dumb solutions to our Abyssal problem, like giant laser cannons. I may miss the service-time requirements, but at least I make up for it by actually doing things - unlike a certain battleship - And hey, for all I care you can take that rank insignia and stick it up your ass. - I'll still be your commanding officer, no ifs and buts.'

With that being said Arizona left the room, followed by Enterprise who tried stopping her by calling her out by name, leaving Saratoga and the Admiral alone in the container.

'You too could try to just get along with her, you know?' Saratoga muttered, finally breaking the silence.

'I don't care whether we get along at all - I'm the commander of this base, and not a kindergartener for snotty girls and one with a chip on her shoulder.' Smith grumbled back.

'That's too bad', Saratoga started with a grim face, before taking a few steps towards him and fixated him, what she believed to be, gently on the chair, ', because the snotty girls are actually warships. Oh and since we are at it, please stop treating us like some misbehaving school class, because to us _YOU_ are the child here.  
Humans can't stand our presence and think we are some kind of ironic joke. - We get that, but that is no reason to be a jerk forever, Sir.'

'I suggest you take your hands off me before we are going to have a problem too.' he said unshaken, despite starting to look a bit sickly,' unless you plan on going through with your threat, Bonnie.'

'Threat? I am just reminding you that we aren't just girls.' Saratoga smiled.

'Also, you are just as awful controlling your strength as the rest of you girls.' Smith smirked while the blushing former battle cruiser loosened her grip a bit.

'My name is Saratoga by the way, not ''Bonnie''. Please at least get our names right, if you wouldn't mind.' Saratoga pouted.

'Oh really? The Piano made me think otherwise', he deadpanned.

Sara finally got it. - Calling her Bonnie instead of her actual name, was just a more subtle version of the Mafia Princess joke some of the base personnel started pulling behind her back after having seen that her flight deck was attached to a Tommy Gun.

'They used those in the Navy too, you know', she defended herself meekly, although she knew that she wasn't completely innocent in getting the name. Alas, even some of her fellow ship girls had started using it by now, and knowing them and their antics it was clear to her that she wouldn't lose it anytime soon.  
Saratoga finally let go of her Admiral and helped him up, but wondered whether she should have let him sit a bit longer soon after.  
He really wasn't looking good.

Still Saratoga decided to leave, and also walk after her friend instead, but briefly stopped.

'Oh Admiral...' she smiled, 'Even if you don't believe it, that girl actually has a lot of respect for you, despite of what she said, and frankly I doubt she even cares. So please at least apologize for the ''racist bitch'', because that one actually hurt her feelings.'

Saratoga sighed as soon as she had left the room.  
She was just as sick of seeing people feel nauseous from touching a ship girl as the others were.  
She thought back to her former admirals and how they had lost respect for them.  
The first one fainted after shacking Arizona's hands, nearly suffocating on his own puke. Moreover, he was afraid of them. As they were still weapons of war, no matter how human they may look, they lost their respect for their commander that instant.  
In their mind, a complete stranger who feared his own subordinates had no place as their commanding officer, and the girls soon drove him crazy with their antics.  
And after the second and third were nothing but a repeat of what happened the first time, they had lost any respect for the admirals of this time, not even giving the others a chance. In their eyes, they were nothing but scared children, with each of them being at least forty years younger than they were.  
And so it came, that in just six months, they had chewed out a total of eight Rear Admirals.

This time however, was different. This time their Admiral was neither afraid of them, nor would he puke from a simple touch.  
Maybe he just held it back to be nice, or maybe he was simply duller to their spiritual energy, but either way, Saratoga didn't really care what the reason was. She could still feel him getting nauseous, and was tired of it.  
Yet he still gained enough of their respect, for them to give him a chance, despite hating him for pushing their friend into the water to make a point and calling them a waste of resources.  
A sentiment Saratoga understood just too well.

After three hours they finally arrived at their destination, and the Independence came to a halt and a ramp on the side slowly moved down, opening up a way to the ocean.  
If it was for them, this would have been the moment where each of them jumped onto the water and started exercising, but Smith had other plans and forbade them to leave the ship.

'Ok now, listen up' Smith said to the impatient girls 'You'll be grouped together in groups of six, so get over to them, once one of the officers calls your name. After that it will be one group against one until all groups have faced off against one another. Who isn't fighting, will wait on ship. Oh and it's only two or three groups a day, so don't start crying if you don't get to exercise on the first day. Any questions?'

Nevada raised her hands.

'Yes, Nevada?'

'What about the Abyssals? With all due respect, to the ship, but you'd have to be blind to not see how this midget can't fight an Abyssal fleet on its own.' Nevada remarked.

'There is a patrol fleet not too far away, plus these are safe waters and the ship is fully armed and supplied for a few days, even with you cormorants on board.' Smith answered 'In addition, we also have a small supply of life ammunition for you girls in case the Independence own armaments aren't enough. - Anything else?'

As none of the ship girls seemed to have any further concerns, Smith had his officers start assembling the fleets.  
Saratoga seemed to be lucky.  
Her group consisted of Arizona, the flagship, Nevada, herself, Yorktown, and two destroyers. - In other words they had decent air capabilities while they could also rely on Arizona's and Nevada's guns.  
Enterprise's group on the other hand, only had herself, her sister Hornet, one BB, a CA and a CL and two destroyers.

However, all in all one could still say the groups were rather balanced, considering that Smith had never seen them fight before.  
Once all groups were set, the exercise started.  
Saratoga and her group were up first, fighting against Tennessee's and Lexington's group, all under the watchful eye of Admiral Smith who had moved to the flight deck to watch the show.

Fighting Tennessee's group wasn't as easy as Arizona and Saratoga initially assumed.  
It all started with the air battle.  
At first it seemed like everything would go Saratoga's way, until she realized that none of the bombers she and Yorktown had sent returned for re-armament, while some of the few surviving fairies claimed that they haven't seen a single bomber in the air, apparently her Sister and Ranger had decided to forgo any kind of bombing and loaded their entire hangar full with fighters, that were now doing strafing runs on their lightly armored destroyers.

While both Yorktown and herself still had some strike craft left, neither of them could actually sortie them, as the other team's wildcats would just take them down instantly, making them effectively useless until either Saratoga's sister or Ranger could be taken out of the fight.

Meanwhile the two battleships were facing different problems. With their destroyers being distracted by the fighters, the two battleships had to take care of Tennessee, Phoenix and the two destroyers, all of them equipped with torpedoes Arizona and Nevada had to dodge instead of concentrating on their aim.

During the middle of the battle, Arizona finally managed to land a shell on Ranger, effectively putting her out of combat.  
Lexington, who now had two ship's worth of fighters to refuel couldn't keep up and was taken out soon afterwards, when Yorktown used the chance to send her remaining bombers on a suicide mission against Lexington's Wildcats, putting the former battle cruiser out of the game too.

Despite the battle not having started in their favor, Arizona and her group still managed to win, although neither Yorktown nor Saratoga had any planes left and sustained several hits, while Nevada had been taken out of the battle by one of Tennessee's torpedoes, shortly before the latter was taken out herself by Arizona's main guns.

As the sextuple returned to the ship, two of the female officers who called them into their teams earlier, were already waiting for them to lead each group of girls into a different container. Arizona nod her fleet frowned as they saw what was inside. Apparently the mission module they had been led into was supposed to be some sort of really small docking facility, with two showers and a whirlpool barely fitting the six of them in together.

'This is a joke, right?' one of the destroyers said.

'Well he did say he won't waste resources on us...' Nevada deadpanned.

Arizona sighed while she shooed the other girls into the tub 'Just get in already, I don't want to give that guy an excuse to call us whiny bitches or something like it. The faster these two days are over, the faster he is going to let us on a proper sortie, and the less I got to see that ass' mug. In fact, I plan on making him fall on his knees and beg me to allow him to be my admiral.'

'Besides, we got hit pretty hard too. Even if it's just training ammunition, we'll still get damaged if we get hit, the only thing it really does is keeping us from sinking.' Saratoga added while throwing her ripped uniform to the side.

As the six ship girls got into the bath, they realized that it was smaller than it actually looked. In fact, the six of them didn't even properly fit in there together, and the only way to make it work was by the four capitol ships to rotate in having the two destroyers on their laps, so each of them could relax at least for a bit. But no matter how hard they tried, sitting shoulder to shoulder to one another just wasn't comfortable at all and the complains began to start really soon.

'This has to be a new form of bullying' Nevada snorted.

'Yeah seriously, you'd need at least two of those to make this even remotely comfortable, and even then it would still suck for anything bigger than a light cruiser', Yorktown added.

'Unless you really want the admiral to think you are whiny bitches, shut the fuck up.' the female officer outside suddenly shouted in a frustrated voice, while banging at the door 'This is a warship and not wellness hotel. Be grateful you even got a tub to begin with.'

When hearing the officer's words the girls fell silent and blushed, none of them had expected her to hear anything they said.

One hour and twenty-three minutes later, the two destroyers suddenly jumped out of the tub and changed into the bathrobes that were waiting on them on a shelf next to the door. 'We are done here, see you later!' they chirped, being obviously happy that they could leave the small tub already.

'This sucks.' Nevada whined.

After a few hours had passed, Saratoga and the others were left out too, however only for dinner and they would have to return as soon as they were done eating until their repairs were done.  
When they entered the mess hall in their bath robes the room was completely empty, safe for the sailors on mess hall duty.  
A sight they were used too by now. One thing they had learned in the few months since their summoning was that most humans got strangely disgusted at how much the capitol ships ate, and so the officers in charge of the mess hall quickly introduced a special ship girl time so the people on the base could eat in peace. As one would expect, this caused even more friction between them and the base personnel as they had to sacrifice some of their own meal time to make room for the additional slot that was now required.

After their dinner time was over, the capitol ships went back to the ''dock'' container while the destroyers were lead to the fleet's quarters, which were located in - you guessed it - yet another one of these mission module containers, stacked directly above their dock.

Finally, after a few days the results were written on a whiteboard.

Up until now no one knew how bad or good the other fleets did as they were either docking themselves or watched over by one of the sailors. Apparently Admiral Smith didn't want them to see what tactics the other fleets might come up with.  
Enterprise's fleet came in first, followed by Arizona's and Saratoga's fleet. Not what Arizona wanted but she was still confident that they had left an impression on Admiral Smith.

As if summoned by some sort of dark magic ritual Smith entered the hangar and clapped his hands loudly to get the ship girls attention.

'Well congratulations, you survived the last few days.' Smith said with a stoic impression 'Well, we'll sail back now, so you can spend the rest of the time playing board games or something.'

'Hey you said you'd let us sail back on our own!' Atlanta cut in.

'No, I said if you impress me I might consider it. I also never said how far I'd let you sail either.'

'So how did we do?' Atlanta demanded while crossing her arms.

'Pardon? The whiteboard is over there.'

'Yeah but you didn't even bother say anything, yet alone showed your face for the last few days.'

'You actually want me to grade your performance, do you?' Smith responded while sinking his face into the palm of his right hand.

'We are waiting.'

'Fine... I guess I can let you water sky behind us... We'll use the towing ropes for that.'

'Let this midget tow us, are you crazy? That'd be totally humiliating. I won't stand for this.', Arizona suddenly snapped back 'Also, you are still avoiding the issue.'

'Well then you better grab a chair and sit down, because it's the best you'll get.' Smith answered in a calm voice 'You want to have whatever you girls did out there graded? Fine, let's give you an analogy... If you think Gettysburg was a disaster, then you haven't seen yourself perform yet. In the last few days, this ship had to doge a total of 57 rouge shells, and 24 torpedoes, despite having kept a proper distance.'

'Huh, and how is that our fault? Blame her captain for positioning her like that.'

'1st, once you are in a real battle, other ships will be out there too, and most of them won't be half as maneuverable as the Independence. 2nd, there was a total lack of any kind of proper tactics which resulted in you girls being brought in disarray far too easily.' Smith sighed 'The most impressive thing I saw was seeing how you girls can ski on the water. Anyway, I got a good idea about where to start training you girls now. Thus I made you an offer, because you did try your best, take it or leave it.'

* * *

'Next time he let us on the water he had the Independence shoot colored shells at us, as a form of evasion training.' Sara giggled 'We really hated his guts back then, Arizona especially .'

'Huh? But everyone seems fine now.' Iowa said while raising an eyebrow. 'And I thought Arizona and the Admiral wanted to marry too.'

'That is a story for another time. Let's just say that we realized how good we actually had it and started to accept the situation.' Saratoga mumbled.

Suddenly a sign sounded through the PA system and a voice calling them all to their stations for the ceremony followed.

'So much for breakfast.' Iowa whined.

'You better get into your uniforms, we wouldn't want you to stick out to much.' Saratoga said while giving Yamato a wink before leaving into the direction of the ship's stern where the equipment hold was.

Once she entered the room she looked around.  
No matter how often she saw it, this room always fascinated her. The room was rather huge, big enough to house the equipment of several fleets worth of ship girls stacked neatly above one another, with cranes that could get a specific ship girl's equipment within one and a half minute, depending on where it was stored. Once equipped a ship girl could easily slide down an armored ramp that could be filled with sea water, similar to a water slide, in order to avoid damage to both the ship girls and the ship itself.  
Another one of this ship's special features was that its stern was almost flat, unlike most other battleships'. Of course Saratoga wasn't surprised by that, as she knew full well that the base hull for this ship used to be an aircraft carrier's.

Suddenly she saw another girl getting her equipment ready and shouted over while coming closer. 'Hey, getting ready for the show?'

'Yeah, even though I don't want to.' the girl replied once Saratoga came into low volume range. 'Why the fuck do I have to throw a bottle at that poor girl?'

'Thee-hee. A ship girl throwing it means they don't have to manipulate the bottle to make sure it shatters.'

'Yeah, but why ***me** *?' the girl whined.

'Oh come on, stop whining,' Saratoga said. 'It is not like arguing with Admiral Smith will do you any good, you should know that. Plus, the ship has your name, so you get to throw the bottle.'

'Yeah, thor - whatever reactor, four triple 16inch gauss turrets, torpedoes, missile bays, missile turrets, lasers, something Iowa said looking similar to her later AA turrets and whatever a 'Bulwark' system is supposed to be. Oh and let's not forget the armor that thicker than goddamn Yamato's. Yeah that's totally me.', the ship girl about Sara's own said with a sarcastic undertone.

'You forgot that she is 330ft longer.' Saratoga teasingly added. 'But really now, usually you don't complain at all, so why now? All of us had to go through the bottle, and we all lived through it.'

'It's just that... You know... Ship type.'

Saratoga looked at the girl with a heartfelt sorry look, as she tried to picture herself into her position. She would probably feel useless next to it, as would she next to any ship girl version of a modern carrier, if there were any.  
The change in ship type was another problem, if Saratoga had to guess it probably made the girl feel like she didn't so a good job during her time, even though she should know better.

'I don't think they wanted to imply anything with that.' Saratoga finally said in a soft voice, in an attempt to comfort her. 'You should see it more as a recognition of all the hard work you did. - For all of us.'

'Let's just get it over with,' the other girl eventually sighed. 'but that doesn't mean that I like it.'

* * *

'Does this old geezer never stop talking?' Zuikaku complained while looking at the TV in Admiral Yamada's office.

'This ''old geezer'' is our ally's head of state.' Kaga reprimanded her in her usual condescending manner. 'If you are just here to complain like the little delinquent you are, then leave Carrier Division Five.'

Zuikaku snorted upon being called a delinquent, as knowing Kaga, the reason for it was actually that Zuikaku had placed herself on the wrong side of the chair, legs spread around the backrest while her arms where hugging its upper part, with her arms resting on the top.

Now that Zuikaku was thinking about it, she was the only carrier in the entire fleet she that was sitting like that, with the possible exception of Katsuragi who had a tendency of copying everything she did, but Zuikaku couldn't say for sure, as she had never observed Katsuragi sitting like that herself.  
Not that Zuikaku cared though. In her mind Kaga had better shut it instead of criticizing her way of sitting.

'Behave yourself, Zuikaku!' Nagato suddenly interfered.

'Huh?! Why only me?!' The carrier demanded.

'Because you are the noisiest, and don't think we have forgotten whom to thank for Sendai annoying us day and night.' Nagato spat back with a stoic face.

Zuikaku gave Kaga a quick glare, but the latter only sat there with her eyes closed and a face that was silently agreeing with the secretary ship.

'Hmpf!' Zuikaku sounded as a form of immature response.

After a little while longer, the president had finally stopped talking, only to be replaced by a light brown haired admiral with a scar over his eye, followed by two ship girls in their full equipment.

'Oh, there is Aniki.' Admiral Yamada suddenly cheered.

'Aniki?' Zuikaku thought out loud, but soon dropped the thought as she bit her lips without realizing it upon seeing the ship girls beside him.

Kaga on the other hand still sat there, her face being emotionless as ever, however Zuikaku could have sworn that she had seen Kaga clenching her skirt for a moment when the USN girls entered the picture.

What followed was another speech.  
However, the news didn't really seem to care much about it and it was likely that, them keeping focus on the Admiral rather than the two ship girls besides him was enforced by military personnel.  
From time to time however, the cast switched to other cameras that gave a better overview of the ceremony.

'Shoukaku-nee?!' Zuikaku suddenly blasted out.

And indeed, amongst the crowd of specially flown in JMDS officers were the ship girls that have been sent over, disguised as regular Navy officers in front of a rising sun flag.

'They stick out like sour thumbs.' Nagato said, referring to all the fleet girls hidden within the lines of officers.

'That is because you know how they look like,' Admiral Yamada winked her off 'or can you actually tell if there are any other USN ship girls there too?'

'The four girls as tall as Yamato are a pretty good guess.' Nagato replied with a self-satisfied grin.

* * *

'If you scratch the paint I'm going to deduct it from your rations.', Admiral Smith whispered in a teasing tone, while handing the blonde carrier a champagne bottle Saratoga had handed to him just a few moments before.

'I christen you, Enterprise.' the blonde carrier said while throwing the bottle, together with her admiral.'

What must have looked like the two of them throwing the bottle together for the crowd, was really mostly Enterprise's strength with Admiral Smith being actually more of a hindrance than a help, as she not only had to worry about throwing the bottle in a way that would make it burst upon impact, but also about not hurting her Admiral in the process.  
On the other hand however, she was happy. It had been a long time since the two had been standing that close to one another, and Enterprise was actually enjoying it.

Meanwhile, the bottle flew towards the ship in what felt like slow motion, spinning several times in the process until it finally bursted on the titan's armor plates.  
Just for a moment most of the cameras finally got off her case, and instead focused on the ship she could consider something like her granddaughter while the crowd still cheered, enough for her to silently apologize to the titan for throwing a bottle against it.

Formerly known as CV-80, the _Enterprise_ was converted into its current state after itself and the redesigned Montana - Class were heavily hit by an Abyssal raid.  
But instead of repairing the damage, they decided to completely redesign the ship, to make up for the completely destroyed Montana hull.  
Of course there were reasons for it.  
For once, a battleship could take much more punishment, a characteristic that is important when your enemies are hard to hit and might potentially sneak up on you undetected. Another one of those reasons was the sheer amount of space a hull this large offered.  
Had they remodeled the Iowa class for example, one of the turrets might have had to go in order to make space for the missile bay.  
As Admiral Smith had told her, the _Enterprise_ could easily house two missile bays in addition to all her other armaments such as her four triple 16inch turrets, which were special in itself as they could be switched between magnetic and conventional weapons, although one would need a fitting in case of the latter.

'Admiral Smith, are there any nuclear weapons on board of this ship?' A reporter eventually asked after the admiral had blocked any ship girl related questions before.

'The Navy neither confirms nor denies the presence of nuclear armaments aboard any of its current and future vessels.' The admiral answered flatly.

'Is it true that this ship is a converted carrier?' Another reporter asked.

'The _Enterprises_ hull is indeed a modification to the Gerald R. Ford Class. However a lot of things were changed. As such her entire armor scheme was reworked and all of the previous armor plates removed in favor of battleship armor.'

'Admiral, is it true that the Japanese battleship Yamato is currently here in the Newport?' a really persistent reporter whose ship girl related questions have been denied over and over before asked.

'I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of any foreign ship girls aboard this ship prior to its arrival in Japan.' Smith replied in an annoyed undertone.

Several more questions were asked until Admiral Smith could finally give the order to launch and board the ship.

Enterprise let out a relieved sigh once the majority of the reporters were gone. The plan to use Saratoga and herself to distract the reporters from all the other ship girls that were placed amongst the marines had actually worked and now only a select number of war correspondents were left, which they could easily avoid, although one was standing only a few meters away from her, following the Admiral and the ship girl towards the bridge.

While Enterprise and Smith made their way to the bridge, the tug boats had already put the ship in position, only the crew and some equipment had to be loaded before they could weigh anchor.

About an hour later, the ship could finally weigh anchor and activated its reactor for the first time.

'Sir, engineering reports all stats nominal throughout the ship. - Thorium Generator online.' a bridge officer reported.

'Excellent', Smith said while sitting down in his chair. 'Weigh anchor and set a course for the Panama Canal, the rest of the fleet and the transports should be waiting on the other side.'

* * *

A/N:  
I apologize for the chapter having taken so long. The first part of it was supposed to be way shorter, and then it suddenly turned into around 8400 words at the point where I finally got around using Sara to force stop the flashback.

People who started Kancolle only recently might wonder about the number of Japanese ship girls being seven rather than the usual six. Fleets can either contain six (normal fleet), seven (Strike Force) or twelve (Combined Fleet) ships. The latter two are event-only though.


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N:** For some unknown reason, the document manager isn't displaying the chapter Nimble tells me was "successfully uploaded" so I had to copy-paste everything in. I'll update it with the nimble version as soon as I find out why the upload didn't work. I hope I managed to make it somewhat readable using the document manager. _

* * *

_The sound of a gunshot tore through the silent sizzling of the sea of fire around the two of them.  
_ _The man looked into the eyes of the bleeding woman in his arms, as she coughed up blood.  
_ _His weapon had just pierced through the vitals of the woman he loved, and yet she was smiling at him happily, tears of joy flowing down her cheeks.  
_ _He looked into her eyes that mirrored the flames that were surrounding them while his white uniform got tainted by the blood it continued to soak up.  
_ _Two more shots were fired, while the woman just continued to smile at him full of affection._

 _As her lips moved for final words of goodbye, the sound of thunder cut through the air, with rain that camouflaged the man's tears with rain water, soon following._

 _With her last remaining strength, the woman pulled herself up to kiss her beloved one last time.  
_ _And when the last thunder roared through the sky, only the man was left alive._

* * *

A gush suddenly emerged from the water right next to where the twin tailed was standing. Somehow, an Abyssal shell had just narrowly missed her while was launching her planes.

Zuikaku was baffled. She deliberately stayed behind, so she could launch her planes from outside of the Abyssal's range, so she didn't expect a shell this close to her.  
'What the heck are you battleships doing, I'm getting shelled here!' Zuikaku shouted into the radio.  
'One of them just sprinted through us ~ desu. Your escorts will have to deal with that one on their own.'  
'Seriously?!' Zuikaku shouted as she drifted a hard turn starboard to evade, making the water splash to the sides due to her rapid movements.  
'Whatever it was, I think Kirishima managed to land a few hits before it escaped, so you just have to finish it off ~ Desu.

Zuikaku looked towards the horizon, where she could make out a single Abyssal, she could not yet identify.

'That much for outranging them.' Sendai complained loudly while trying to get into torpedo range.  
'Shut up Kawauchi!' Zuikaku shot back.

'Uhm... Zuikaku-san... We got a problem, nanodesu.' Inazuma said in shock while looking through her hands, which had formed a binocular.  
'Huh, what's up?' The carrier said and checked out the situation herself. 'Damn... Kawauchi, come back, NOW!'

'Ehh? Why, I just need to torpedo her and good riddance!'  
'Just get your ass back here, we are retreating.' She said to the light cruiser before turning on her radio.

'Foolish...Sink into the chilly place...!' A deep echoing voice sounded through the ocean, while the Abyssal's AA-fire downed Zuikaku's returning planes.

Sendai quickly drove a zick-zack course away from the Abyssal. She could tell that she was no match for it, and the 12inch shells that flew into her direction only reinforced that suspicion. Yet, after a while, the Abyssal still landed a shot, sending Sendai flying and hitting the water a few meters later.

'Sendai-san!' Inazuma shouted.  
'Damn.' The tattered light cruiser said in pain as she stood up. 'I can't move, my engine most have gotten damaged.'

Meanwhile Zuikaku was busy trying to resupply the few planes that made it through the AA fire. It wasn't much, but at least she could stall the battleship's approach for a bit, so Inazuma could start towing Sendai away from that direction. After a few minutes of constant zick-zacking, and getting hit almost several times, she finally managed to ready up a squadron of torpedo bombers.

Zuikaku pulled the arrow out of the quiver, drew her bow, and shot the arrow.

At first the arrow just roared through the sky, but soon turned into six Tenzan in a flame like burst of magical energy. The squadron sped towards its target at low altitude, ready to drop its payload as soon as it came into range.

Suddenly the squad leader's right wingmen exploded, with the shrapnel from the explosion taking out two more. One of the princess 12inch guns had hit the plane next to the air wing's leader. Still the fairy pilots valiantly kept pushing forward towards the Abyssal.

Another plane had just been shot down, this time by AA fire. After a bit longer, the remaining planes were finally close enough and unleashed their torpedoes before veering to the side.

The heavy payloads landed in the water, and almost instantly started speeding toward their target.

The Princess looked at the torpedo bombers unimpressed, and started moving to evade the incoming torpedoes, and her AA guns now shot into the water, hoping to take the torpedoes out before they could reach the battleship. In the end, only one torpedo actually hit its target, causing minimal damage, while the battleship drew closer and closer to the slowed down ship girls.

Zuikaku frowned, when only 3 of her torpedo bombers returned and the battleship still kept getting closer. Usually she would only have evade until she was outside the battleship's range at this point, but with Sendai in tow, she couldn't go her full 34 knots, even though Inazuma was helping.

Her 12.5cms turrets started firing at the approaching battleship, and a few moments later she got hit. A sharp pain ran through her as she coughed blood into the sea and black smoke started to emerge from her now burning flight deck, she could no longer launch or recover planes.

'Shit, she got me.' Zuikaku coughed while her speed kept dropping fast. But that wasn't her only problem. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't stand straight, in fact she was listing heavily and would probably capsize if she had to take another hit like that and it was a wonder that she wasn't missing any limps yet.

By now the Princess was close enough for Zuikaku to see her without concentrating.

If her expression hadn't been so hostile, Zuikaku would have described the white haired woman as beautiful, even though she wasn't wearing much, other than high heeled over-knee boots that extended almost up to her hips and a white cape that partially covered her rigging. The rigging itself was special among the Battleships.

Unlike most of the other battleship princesses' riggings, Zuikaku had previously seen, this one didn't seem to have an exceptionally large mouth, at least not that she could see.  
Its 305mm triple guns were mounted atop two huge forearms with giant three fingered mechanical hands, and a black diadem decorated her well kempt long white hair.  
And yet, one of the two visible turrets looked like it got totally wasted, probably due to the aforementioned hit by Kirishima as the twin tailed carrier assumed.

It was without a doubt, that the being that moved closer and closer was a princess, and nothing the three of them could hold off on their own.

'Inazuma, take Sendai and go on. Also...' Zuikaku suddenly said in a shaking voice and a sad almost angelic smile, the destroyer wasn't used to from the carrier. 'Can you please scuttle me?'

* * *

'Are you sure they are going to be fine, Onee-sama?' Haruna asked.  
'No problem desu~' Kongou started in English before she switched back to Japanese 'Zuikaku can take a single Ta-class on her own, plus she has Sendai and Inazuma with her.'  
'Are you sure it was a Ta though? I could have sworn I saw some kind of weird hat.'  
'Maybe it was a Ta with a bad fashion sense!' Kongou defended her opinion.

Suddenly Haruna winced in pain as one of her turrets exploded when a shell hit it.

'Besides, we got our own problems here, desu.' Kongou said while hurrying over to her little sister while returning fire to the Abyssal battleship that just landed a shot on Haruna.  
'Don't worry Onee-sama, Haruna is fine.' the battleship coughed in pain while even though a dark red fluid ran down her mouth.

The two girls jumped away from each other when a shell landed right between them.

'Pretty persistent, desu' Kongou complained.  
'Hiei Onee-sama can you direct your guns 3° west and fire two salvos, please.' Kirishima interrupted.  
'All guns! Fire! Hit it!' The talked to battleship said followed by a salvo from her four turrets.

Soon after the other Kongous followed suit again while also trying not to get hit.

All three of them were fast, so not getting hit too much wasn't hard for them, yet Kongou was still the only one of them who was still completely undamaged, despite being the flag ship.  
Suddenly an uncomfortable sound could be heard in the distance, causing the eldest sister's radar to ping warnings into her head, while her 25mm auto cannons also seemed to spring ready for incoming aircraft.

'Shit. I hope Zuikaku can finish hers off fast, we could really use a few fighters here.' Kongou muttered before the sound of the four sister's combined 488 auto cannons started to fill the area as the Abyssal's dive bombers tore apart the sky.

* * *

'Finally back in my own clothes.' Iowa said relieved, as she was stretching while walking towards the stern of the ship. 'That uniform was way too tight around the chest.'

'Mine too...'Yamato added while following Iowa together with the rest of her fleet, minus Shoukaku and Teruzuki whostayed behind in their room, and the other Iowa sisters who were also present.

Upon the two battleship's words, Fubuki looked down her own chest and got disheartened again and wondered, just like so often, whether she actually got remodeled back then.

Then she peeked over to the other ships, especially her fellow destroyers and the light cruiser.

'I didn't get remodeled after all, did I?' She whispered while looking into her open palms.

New Jersey and Wisconsin grinned at each other upon hearing that.

'Hey, destroyer,' Jersey said while bringing her head next to Fubuki's ears from behind. 'If you want them to get bigger ...'

Suddenly, the destroyers face turned red as a tomato and steam shot out of her ears.  
The two fast battleships giggled when they saw how steam just had literally shot out of the destroyer's ears.

'Can you two please drop it already.' Iowa complained. 'Being with you two feels like taking care of toddlers'  
'Strange, sis... The Admiral says the same about you.' Wisconsin offered as a comeback.  
'At least he doesn't think I'm the recruit's mattress, I can't say the same about you two though.' Iowa shot back.  
Jersey shrugged. 'We are just helping him weed out the recruits he doesn't want near ship girls anyway. What's wrong if we are having a little fun while doing it?'  
'Plus, you are just jealous because he doesn't think of you as his mattress...' Wisconsin added.  
'And why would I want him to think of me as a matr-...Hey!' Iowa shouted back while blushing.

Jersey and Wisconsin gave each other a dirty grin while Missouri rolled her eyes at them. Both of Iowa's younger sisters knew exactly how to get to her, and when it was best to strike. However they also knew that they had to 'keep em coming' fast before Missouri intervened or either of the two ran out of jokes.

And so their usual scene continued for a while, just this time the Japanese ships were there too.

While Mutsu just observed the scene with great amusement, both Yamato and Yahagi covered Fubuki's and Yuudachi's ears, with the latter twitching around heavily in order to free her ears from Yamato's grasp. Fubuki on the other hand was still out of it, probably daydreaming and thus rather easy to handle for Yahagi.

'Just more and more dicks! Is there anything else you two can think about?' Iowa eventually asked them rather in an irritated tone.  
'Yeah to congratulate you, If it was you against Yamato, you would win.' Jersey said while pointing towards the four Japanese girls who were all smoking out of their heads by now.

Somewhere during their argument, both Yahagi and Yamato could no longer take it, putting them into similar states as Fubuki got turned in before, which resulted in them having stopped covering the destroyers' ears, exposing them to the very adult discussion the Iowas were having and even Mutsu was blushing by now.

'Congrats sis, four citadel hits to four different ships at the same time, and none of them can fight on.' Wisconsin giggled into her almost closed hand.  
'Huh? Who said that~'  
'Let's end this here, before its five hits.' Missouri interrupted, herself being close to her limit too. 'Plus, if the Admiral's daughter hears any of that, you guys are into more trouble than a college freshmen after faking a marriage to get it on with his girlfriend.

After a while, and the two destroyers, the light cruiser and the super battleship getting up again and in a shape to walk, the group finally reached the _Enterprise's_ stern.  
The group then leaned over the railing and watched the huge stern wave as the ship passed by as close to the coast as possible, only two destroyer escorting it.

'Don't you think two destroyers is kinda...Not enough?' the youngest Iowa class said while winking towards some spectators at the coast.  
'Amdiral Smith doesn't want to draw too much attention before we pass the Panama Canal. Plus, if we get attacked, we can use land based defenses which is saving fuel we'd otherwise have to spend into escort.' Missouri said.  
'It's also faster to pass the canal with only three ships and meet the rest on the other side.' Iowa added in.  
'Are you sure she is going to fit though?' Yamato asked. 'I know I wouldn't have.'  
'We also had to squeeze through back then... Apparently it got enlarged when we lost the majority of our carriers. Probably so they could move them around between the Atlantic and the Pacific faster.' Missouri explained.  
'It's strange standing on one though.' Yahagi said 'You know another ship.'  
'You'll get used to it.' Iowa said in a cheerful voice. 'All the cruise liner escorting on the other side will get annoying though.'  
'I think they confiscated all cameras and smart phones during the trip, so you don't need to worry about anyone seeing your morning hair, sis.' Wisconsin shot in sheepishly.

Iowa frowned at her sisters' comment and grumbled. 'You two used to be so cute...'  
Indeed, a few years before arguments like the one earlier would have never happened between the four sisters. A few years ago though things changed drastically. Everything started with them being on the lookout for recruits just joining 'for the girls', but it escalated far too fast over the course of time.

Suddenly Iowa got torn out of her train of thought when one of the destroyer's LaWS shot down a small drone that approached the ships.

'Let's just hope that one belonged to a paparazzi and not some curious kid.' she muttered while giving her younger sisters a sharp look for trying to strike sexy poses for the flying camera in time before the destroyer could eliminate it.

* * *

'You could at least have dinner with us, Bruce' Shizuka sighed.  
'What are you, my wife?' Smith answered bluntly.  
'If I was I'd file a divorce right now for how cold you are treating your own daughter.'  
'Of whom I am sure, she'd prefer it if I didn't get involved with her too much.'  
'You don't really think that, do you?' Shizuka snapped at him. 'Ever since sis died in that fire you two keep drifting apart more and more, it's painful to watch.'  
'Again, she doesn't want to.'  
'How would you know that? Other than her friends, I'm the one she spends most of her time with.'  
'Last time I tried to have a meal with you two, she ignored me and talked only to you. - In Japanese, to add.'  
'Of course she'd talk Japanese with me, or do you honestly think sis and I talked English when you weren't home?'  
'Emphasis on ''When I wasn't there''.'

Shizuka took a deep breath. 'You do realize she only is like that to get your attention, do you? Come on Bruce, the ship won't sink because you sacrifice two hours for your daughter.'  
'Fine,' Smith sighed in resignation. 'but I'm gone the moment you two start talking in languages I don't fully understand.'  
'Atta boy. Its 1700 sharp in your quarters then.' Shizuka grinned.  
'What? I thought we were talking about the mess hall.' Smith said baffled.  
'So you can make an easy exit? Besides, your quarters are big enough, or did you leave it so messy that you don't want your daughter to see it?' Shizuka teased.  
'Very funny.'  
'By the by...' Shizuka started sounding a bit more serious now. 'I don't mind bunking up with her for now, but don't you think she'd be happier if you let her have your in-port quarters until we are in Japan? Or at least the Captain's in port quarters, or at least the sea-quarters, you don't need them anyway, going by how you are commanding the ship yourself.'  
'Other officers have their families on board too for the time being. How would they feel if I'd put my daughter into her own room while some of them sleep in containers?'

Shizuka frowned as she sat down on the surface of his desk and crossed her legs.  
'It's your room, you can do the fuck you want with it.' She said before looking down at herself. 'This would work so much better if I wasn't it was wearing a skirt, right?'  
'It would work better if I wouldn't see you as a little sister.' he sighed back 'Or if I hadn't been the one the boarding school called every time you went over the board.'

Shizuka's face darkened as she pulled out a phone, 'Let me answer that pun with a sound.' shortly before an awkward cricket sound could be heard from it.

'Very funny, can you get your three letters off my desk now?'  
'Ok, ok.' she said as she used her arms to lift herself off the desk, and then made her way towards the door. 'Just make sure not to stand us up, again. You only have one daughter, you know?'

* * *

 _The silver haired girl stood in the middle of the sea.  
_ _Suddenly the air filled with the sound of gunfire that originated from one of the ships.  
_ _The girl turned around and looked at the source of the gun fire._

 _Shoukaku winked in confusion when she suddenly looked up a large, green colored, steel structure she'd recognize anywhere. - It was her sister little sister Zuikaku, all alone with no planes left to defend herself.  
_ _Shoukaku opened her mouth to shout towards her, but no tone came out of her mouth._

 _Suddenly, the first squadron of the blue planes her sister desperately tried to fight off, managed to get through her defenses and immediately started diving down on its defenseless target.  
_ _The planes dove down, going faster and faster with every second, its wings tearing the air apart until it finally dropped its load._

 _Shoukaku's focus changed from the plane to the bomb.  
_ _Suddenly there was a loud explosion, the bomb had hit her sister.  
_ _At the same time, a different kind of planes had approached her sister from the side, and dropped their torpedoes down into the water, sending them onto a collision course._

 _Shoukaku fell on her knees and started crying, still trying to shout out to her little sister... But in the end all she could do was bearing witness to how her sister started listing more and more._

'Zuikaku!' Shoukaku suddenly shouted out in tears, followed by a loud thud sound as she hit her head on the bunk bed's upper unit.  
'Whaaa' Teruzuki cried out in surprise when she fell of her chair due to getting startled by the carrier.

Shoukaku her palms on her aching forehead. 'Ouch, that will leave a dent.'  
'In the bunk maybe.' Teruzuki muttered while getting off the floor 'Did anything happen?'  
'Just a bad dream.' the carrier answered while looking at the imprint her forehead had left on the bunk's ceiling. 'I better have someone repair that... Or Yamato will kill me.'  
'I don't think she will notice with the mattress between it. I mean it's not like she is the girl from that one story where they used a pea to discern who the real princess was. How was it called again...? Oh yeah the Princess and the pea!' Teruzuki chirped happily for remembering that.

There was a moment of silence.

'I better have someone buckle it out... fast...' Shoukaku worried, while wiping the tears out of her eyes.

Teruzuki looked at the carrier. Even though Shoukaku slept a few hours longer than everyone else, she still didn't seem like she had actually slept much. And even though Teruzuki didn't know what exactly the silver haired carrier's dream was about, she could still see the crane's sadness in her eyes.

'If you are worried about Zuikaku-san, why don't you just ask the communications officer to radio home? I'm sure the Admiral won't mind.' Teruzuki offered as a solution after having heard about Shoukaku's dream.

* * *

'Sorry, no can do.' The Lieutenant in charge of communications said. 'You'll need permission to make a call home, girl.'  
'Bu-' Teruzuki started.  
'Listen girls, I'm gonna tell you the same I'd tell ours... Actually wait I'll word it nicer. If you get Admiral Smith's permission you are welcome to come again, and I'll let you phone home as long as you want to, but if you can't please don't come here crying because I don't respond to it. Oh and before you are going to ask who I am more scared off, the answer is the guy who keeps those whacky FBBs in check. So, sorry girls but orders are orders.' He said before turning back towards a screen. 'If you excuse me now, I'm trying to watch the game.'

'I wonder if my communications officer was so difficult to deal with too.' Shoukaku pouted in disbelieve once the door shut behind them.  
'Well he _**is**_ following his orders...' Teruzuki retorted weakly.  
'Oh please, as if the Abyssal's could decode anything this ship sends, when you and Fubuki-chan couldn't even handle the intercom system.'  
'Let's just ask Mutsu-san to bring it up with the Admiral later.'  
'I don't think she'll let me...'  
'Well you could always ask Saratoga or Enter-'  
'I'll try my luck with Mutsu-san' Shoukaku suddenly shot back.

Shoukaku sighed. The two ship girls had been searching for their flagship for hours without luck. True it was easy to get lost in the belly of the massive battlewagon, but unlike before there was always someone they could ask for directions, especially when they were about to enter areas of the ship they were not supposed to be in. But even if this hadn't been the case neither of them was really worried that something like last time could happen again, and even if it did, Shoukaku would be able to take care of it on her own. However that didn't mean that all the sailors were particularly friendly, most even pushed the way descriptions off onto lower ranked sailors because they didn't want to bother with the ship girls themselves, while others were actively avoiding them and pretended that they didn't hear them.

'This is so frustrating!' Shoukaku said annoyed when they reached the deck. 'And the worst is that our radio is jammed too.'

'What's wrong Shoukaku-san, poi~' A girl suddenly said from behind the capitol ship.  
'Yuudachi-chan!' Teruzuki said happily.  
'Poooiiiii~!'

Shoukaku turned around, to see her fellow Japanese ships approaching, her. Behind them, at the very end of the ship were the four American battleships, one lecturing two of the others while the fourth kept her distance. Shoukaku wondered what they were arguing about, but quickly dropped the thought. And then it suddenly dawned on her, one of their battleships, the exact one they have been looking for the entire time was absent.

'Where is Mutsu-san?' Shoukaku frowned.  
'Mutsu-san? Uhm she left about 20 minutes ago to get our fleet assignments from the American Admiral, why?' Yamato asked.  
'ARRRG!' Shoukaku exploded. 'Are you telling me I wandered through this whole damn Labyrinth for nothing?!'  
'Sorry.' the super battleship apologized meekly.

The unnerved carrier took a deep breath to calm herself down.  
Usually the carrier was the calmer of the two crane sisters, the one that could easily overlook all the insult's Kaga threw into the sisters' direction without ever losing her composure. Right now though, the carrier was far too worried about her little sister to keep her usual composure, and everyone could see that something was on her mind too.

'Why don't you calm down and tell us what is up, first Shoukaku-san?' Fubuki said bravely.

* * *

Admiral Smith let out an inner sigh. Both his secretaries were currently gathering the requisition documents from the other fleet girls to bring them to him to sign them off, leaving him and the Big 7 alone in his office. Usually, they had a separate requisition officer, but due to some ill joke of fate, she came down with the flu, leaving him as the one who had to sign those papers in his stead. It was a dreadful task, which he mainly had to do because the ship girls didn't get paid. However, it wasn't like the navy left them dry without any commodities, once a week the girls could requisition things they needed and that weren't available in the base's, and now the ship's, market. At first Smith didn't mind signing them, but at some point the girls got aware that he had to sign them whether he wanted or not as long as it wasn't too unreasonable. Of course this quickly resulted in all sorts of sorts of things landing on it, to a point where no parent would want to read them anymore and even after ten years people were still surprised what could make it on those forms. He was glad no one had ever leaked those lists to the public, as he was sure people would riot in the streets if they saw what the USN spent its budget on these days, and for the next few weeks he would have seven more ship girls and their shenanigans to cater.

Smith looked at the document on his screen and moved the mouse over the print button, just to click it a nanosecond later.  
Suddenly the printer sprang to life, startling an unprepared Mutsu who was standing in front of his desk.

'You may sit down' Smith said.  
'Thank you I'm used to standing.' The battleship said a bit surprised.  
'It makes me nervous, so sit down.'

With a sigh the battleship sat down and crossed her legs, while watching Smith reach for the documents he had just printed.

'Here these are yours, just don't go too much overboard. There is a translated sample in the backside in case any of you can't read them.'  
'Thank you, but what are they for?' The battleship said with a puzzled look.  
'As long as you are here you get treated just like my girls, so if you need anything fill them out. Just make sure you are done by tomorrow.' Smith answered while continuing to work on his computer, resulting in the printer springing to life again shortly after.

'After we've crossed Panama Canal's locks you girls will start going onto the water in rotations. Right now we only got three really stealthy ships, but once we are on the other side that will no longer be the case. I'll have all ship girls with the *Enterprise*, while the destroyers will remain in the back with the carriers and civilian ships. ' He said before giving her the last few documents. 'These will be your fleets.'

Mutsu looked over the files, according to them the Japanese girls were almost completely split up, however each of them also still had someone they knew in their fleet. Not much to the dreadnought's surprise she was one of the flagships and would have Teruzuki, Wisconsin and several other girls she had yet to talk to, such as Intrepid, with her.

Yamato on the other hand seemed to be in a fleet with two more of their own girls, namely Shoukaku and Fubuki, however neither of them was the flagship. Steaming with them were Iowa, Atlanta and Enterprise.

'Are you sure putting those two into the same fleet is wise, Admiral?' Mutsu asked carefully.  
'From what I heard those two heavy weights get along just fine, so why split them up?'  
'Aehm... I am actually talking about the carriers.' Mutsu said a bit lost in her imagination of a disheartened Shoukaku.  
'Unless this folder is bullshitting me, Shoukaku isn't some annoying bitch that will talk back the entire time or is exceptionally bratty. In other words they should get along just fine.  
'World War II is a bit fresher in our minds than in yours though.' Mutsu said while refraining from chuckling at the unintended description of the other crane carrier. 'Yamato-san and Iowa-san never exchanged a single shell, but for those two it's different. You can't expect them to forget all that over night, Admiral.'  
'I know mine can deal with it, and I'm certain yours can too. Besides you girls learning to get along with each other is kind of the point, isn't it?'  
'I guess Yamato could hold them off each other's throats.' jokingly.

Smith leaned back and just looked at her for that comment. While Mutsu, unbeknownst to Smith, had already told Shoukaku off the other day, she fully understood why the standard carrier wouldn't want to be anywhere near Enterprise, and yet, just yesterday she said similar words to the white haired carrier. No matter how hard the battleship tried to believe in her, she wasn't sure whether Shoukaku would be able to work under her former foe, who was that fleet's flagship.

The two of them stayed in the room a while longer, discussing first drafts for fleets once they were in Japan, and to Mutsu's surprise everything looked quite promising, although she could imagine that some girls, would throw a fit for getting separated from their sisters and usual fleet mates. Ooi for example, was a case Mutsu was rather sure about, but that was something she would let her own sister deal with it should the necessity arise. Since Mutsu didn't know that Admiral Smith mistook Admiral Yamada for his father she was also worried whether the two admirals would actually get along well enough for the ship girls to follow suit. There was also something else that bothered her about the American, and the way he acted around her and other ship girls, although she couldn't put her finger on what exactly it was. In the end the battleship decided to abandon the thought for now and rather concentrate on the matter at hand, as her experience with human personnel was rather limited to begin with.

After another hour and a half, the two decided to call it a day and Mutsu could finally return to the rest of her fleet, and if she was right they should be in the mess hall around now.

When the battleship noticed as she entered the mess hall was her carrier, continuously hitting the table with her index finger while giving the battleship herself a rather annoyed look, not having touched her food yet, which was something very unusual for Shoukaku (or any carrier at all).

'Has something happened?' Mutsu asked the carrier while passing the table to get her food.  
Instead of answering Shoukaku merely stood up and followed her, it was clear that the carrier had no intention to wait until the battleship would have returned to the table.

'I'm worried something might have happened to Zuikaku.' The carrier said after taking some deep breaths to calm herself down, now being her usual meek self again. 'I just want to check whether my sister is fine, but the officer in charge of communications said I need permission from their admiral.'  
'Of course he did, they don't want to be found.' Mutsu sighed. 'Why do you think something has happened to begin with?'  
'I saw her sink...' Shoukaku winced. 'It felt so... real.'  
'You mean you dreamed it? Sorry but I can't go asking them to risk the lives of everyone here because you had a bad dream.'  
'Please.' the carrier begged with tears in her eyes.  
'Listen I'm sorry,' The brown haired battleship said while putting her free hand on the carriers shoulder to cheer her up. 'but I really can't. Whatever happened or didn't happen, there is nothing you can do from here. Besides you should know Admiral Yamada well enough to know he'd let you know if something had happened to Zuikaku.'  
'But-'  
'Fine, I see I can't stop you.'  
'So you are going to ask?!' The carrier shouted happily, only to shrink in a few seconds later when she realized that she had just drawn the attention of the entire mess hall to herself.  
'No I'm not.' Mutsu sighed.  
'But you just said...'  
'I said I can't stop you from asking' Mutsu said while both sat down on the table, now with the battleship's food. 'Our fleet got split up, and you aren't in mine. You will have to ask your new flagship later.'

'We got split up, ~ poi?' Yuudachi interjected.  
The battleship sighed. 'Yes, and you are going to behave yourselves. All of you. It's not like you won't be all alone either.'  
'Who am I with?' Teruzuki asked.  
'We all got meetings later this evening. I'll tell you where to go in time, but now I want to eat.' The battleship frowned. 'Sorry but you will have to wait until then too. If your flagship just shoots it down without even listening I'll talk to Admiral Smith myself first thing tomorrow morning, promise.'

'Fine...' the silver carrier said disheartened.

* * *

A loud bang sounded through the office of Rear Admiral Yamada, when he brought down his hands on the table in shock. 'Where the heck did that Princess come from?!'

'We don't know yet.' Ooyodo reported. 'But she was dangerously close to Zuikaku, before she shot down the drone.'  
'How did she even find her, it's not like our carriers tend to go frontline?' Nagato asked.  
'I don't know...' said Ooyodo. 'We haven't heard of the entire fleet since then.'  
'Planes...' Yamada whispered.  
'Pardon Admiral?' the secretary ship asked.  
'It must have followed her planes back to where she was.' Yamada concluded.  
'Admiral,' the chestnut eyed battleship said firmly. 'I'm afraid we have to assume that we have lost the entire fleet.'  
'Have them send out more drones.'  
'Admiral, we haven't heard from them for hours. I doubt that any of them are still.' Ooyodo interfered.  
'I said have them send out more drones.' Yamada said while clawing himself into the table.

Ooyodo and Nagato both sighed and left the room. Just like their admiral they too were overrun with emotions. Anger, Sadness and the feeling of loss.

Once they had left the office both went their separate ways again. Ooyodo would go take care of those drones, although she doubted that they'd find anything, while Nagato just wanted to give her admiral some space.

The secretary ship wandered around the base for a while to clear her head. It's been a while since they had last lost a ship girl, and now they had, in all likelihood, lost an entire strike force of elite ship girls. Nagato closed her eyes and remembered the last time they lost a ship girl to unexpected circumstances. It happened a few years ago with a destroyer that got surprised by an Abyssal dive bomber and later came back closer to an Abyssal than a ship girl, but was somehow still herself. However, as soon as she re-appeared as soon did she vanish and any attempts to re-summon her had failed ever since. And yet, the JMDS still believed that they could one day re-summon her under the right conditions.

After a while of walking Nagato set down on the slope facing the track field and suddenly smiled. In a bit more than a month the annual curry contest would take place again.  
 _'Maybe I can push the judge duty off onto one of the Americans this year'_ Nagato thought. If she had to name things she couldn't deal with since having gotten a human-like body curry would certainly be on that list. And yet, each year admiral Yamada pushed the judging duty onto her, and she was honestly astonished at how he came up with a new excuse each year. Why her, and not Akagi? Nagato quickly dropped that thought. If they had Akagi judge the contest, the contest would never end as she'd just delay the judgment until she was filled.

Nagato went on to think how the contest would end this year. Whether the carriers would actually manage to cook something this year, and if Kongou would allow Hiei anywhere near her pot this time. 'Damn.' Nagato cursed. Just as she had cleared her head a bit, she had to think about those four, now all she could think of, was how unsettlingly silent it would be from now on and how much the Akatsuki's would cry over their sister. _'I'll be the one who has to tell them, eh?'_ Nagato sighed inside her mind before she pulled her legs closer and sank her head into her thighs.

* * *

The silver haired battleship yawned tiredly, towards the horizon. Ever since they had left Wladiwostock her fleet had done nothing but patrolling the waters, just because some fishermen claimed that they had seen a strange Abyssal standing on the water a few days ago. Usually, the Navy wouldn't care for it, but the fisher boat came back heavily damaged, so an Abyssal fleet was likely to be there, although their Admiral suspected that they just got scared of some Japanese ship girls while conducting illegal activities, since it turned out that their transponder was turned off for a few days. Still, Gangut had never heard of Japanese ship girls attacking fisher boats for fishing in their waters before, usually those ships were kindly escorted out. Of course, since their transponder was off, there was a high possibility that one of their warning shots accidentally hit. Still with the _Shtorm_ currently operating somewhere near the Japanese sea, the Navy didn't want to risk getting surprised by Abyssals and loose the carrier, hence their fleet was deployed to check things out.

'Hey Gangut, one of my planes got something' The other battleship, Petropavlovsk, said. 'Four Japanese battleships, one carrier a cruiser and a destroyer. Just a few hours away, looks like it was really just a warning shot having come to close.'  
'How do you know? They might look for the same Abyssals we are looking for.' a tall, light blue destroyer offered.  
'We've been out here for days now, and have yet to see even a hint of an Abyssal, that's how.'  
'Don't you think that's a bit unfair, Comrade?'

'Ahh, that feels good' The battleship interrupted happily after taking a sip from the bottle, now having a slightly flushed face. 'Tashkent has a point and so do you, so let's just sail to the border and radio them.'  
'Comrade Gangut...You shouldn't drink on a mission.' the sky blue destroyer sighed while winking two more destroyers over to follow them.  
'Don't be such a spoilsport. Here take a sip.' Gangut answered and forced the bottle against the destroyer's lips.

Gangut let out a heartfelt laugh, while the destroyer leader gulped down the fluid only to start coughing soon after, when it began burning in her throat. After all, Tashkent was a ship girl, so even if the alcohol would cause a momentary sting it wouldn't leave any (lasting) damage. Of course the destroyer leader might, just like any human, still get drunk after a while. Not that Gangut thought the humans should care whether the destroyers got drunk or not, as they were, despite their looks, all older than them to begin with.

The group of ship girls continued to sail towards where the Japanese fleet was, Petropavlovsk's recon plane keeping a good eye on their location so they wouldn't lose them.

Suddenly Petropavlovsk cursed, that her recon plane had been shot down. Gangut calmed her down and told her that their carrier probably thought it was an Abyssal plane and sent one of her CAP fighters after the recon plane, without Petropavlovsk realizing it.

Still, they had a good idea where the Japanese fleet was sailing to and just continued in that direction, hoping that their radars would eventually pick them up instead. However nothing like that happened, so Gangut sent her own recon plane out to find them again, however to no avail.

Suddenly they heard cannon fire in the distance and Gangut redirected her plane there.

According to the fairy's report the Japanese fleet had just engaged an Abyssal fleet in the middle of the ocean. Luckily for Gangut's plane, both the Japanese carrier's as well as the Abyssal carrier's fighters had been far too busy to even realize that the Russian recon plane was anywhere near them, so she could observe the battle rather well while sailing her own fleet closer to the battlefield.

Apparently the Japanese had split their fleet up, with the battleships having charged forward while the carrier and its escorts stayed further behind, outside of cannon range. Gangut thought this was a good opportunity. With their carrier being almost alone and busy they could interrogate them once the battle was over without having to worry about the four battleships for the time being.

However, Gangut suddenly had a bad feeling and let her scout check out the area near the battleships.  
While the Abyssal's carrier was already burning and on retreat, their battleships apparently gave the ship girls a hard time. And then Gangut's gut feeling came true. After one of its turrets had been taken out, one of the Abyssal's broke formation and sailed away from the battle, following the fighters which were returning to its flattop.

'Change of plan, comrades. Follow me.' the battleship decided on her own.

Just half an hour later, the two Russian battleship's guns roared through the sky.

* * *

Admiral Smith sighed when his in-law placed the cutlery on the table. Only a few meters away, his daughter silently put down her cup down silently while flipping one of her new school book's pages, totally ignoring her father while waiting for her aunt to serve the food. It's not like he didn't expect that, ever since he returned from that Abyssal base, most conversations he had with his daughter were actually fights or either of them scolding the other much like the other day when the Japanese ship girls arrived.

'Looking forward to your new school?' Smith finally broke the silence.  
'Of course I'm looking forward to leaving all my friends behind because of your new ''work'' place. Thank you very much for asking, dad.' Yuki replied coldly.  
'I wouldn't leave you alone across the ocean either if I were your parent.' Shizuka said while putting the dishes on the table.  
'If you were, I wouldn't have to be embarrassed for my father's choice of woman. In fact you two should marry, you are basically a couple anyway.'  
'Can you please stop that, Yuki?' Smith groaned. 'We really aren't like that.'  
'Right, you prefer woman mom hated coming out of your bathroom with nothing but a towel around them.' Yuki snorted while rolling her eyes.

Smith frowned. Each time his daughter failed at setting them up a condescending comment about Arizona would soon follow. In this particular case, she picked out the moment from when on their family relationship started to degrade. The first father's day after he and the battleship got together, Yuki wanted to surprise him with breakfast, and found Arizona leaving the connected bathroom in a towel as soon she had opened the door. All his daughter did that day was leaving without saying anything at all. In the following months Yuki became increasingly hostile towards not only Arizona but the rest of the ship girls too, so Smith was secretly surprised that she seemed to get along with Mutsu and the other ships in her fleet.

'You know what? - I've had it with the two of you. Let's just eat before I explode.' Shizuka broke up the storm before it could unfold.

'Thanks for the food.' Yuki said as soon as she was done.  
'Good, and now that you are done eating, you can answer your father's question. Maybe without being cynical this time, hm?' Shizuka said softly.  
'Shust leaf heer bee' Smith murmured without opening his mouth while eating.  
Yuki groaned. 'Could you at least finish chewing before talking?'  
'Sorry, mum.' he answered after gulping down.  
'Hmpf!' Yuki grunted. 'And to answer your question, my uniform might be late so I'll have to wear my old schools uniform for a few days, but if you actually cared you'd know that.  
'Annnd - timeout.' Shizuka intervened. 'Really can you two have normal conversations again just once? Besides Bruce, don't you have something to say to her?'  
'Do I?' Smith asked oblivious to what she was implying but quickly remembered once his sister-in-law's glare pierced him. 'Right, that. Do you want your own room, Yuki? There is one that's technically reserved for me which I won't need.'  
'Do you want to get rid of me?' Yuki suddenly asked her aunt.  
'She wants me to spoil you for a change.' Smith answered instead.  
'And you seriously thought you could bribe me by letting me stay in here?'  
'Actually, your father was thinking about his on-sea quarters.' Shizuka smiled.  
'No, thank you. I don't want the first thing I see in the morning be some ship-girl leaving his quarters half naked again.'  
'Oh for god's sake, can you stop that?!' Smith sighed. 'That happened once, over six years ago, and she was my girlfriend! And it's not like I have any time for that either.'

'Duh, tell me something new.' Yuki said as she suddenly stormed out.

'Told you she hates me.' Smith continued eating.  
'No she doesn't you oblivious oaf...' Shizuka rolled her eyes. 'I'll go talk to her.'

* * *

Zuikaku smiled at the Akatsuki-class destroyer as her words came out of her mouth. By now the shellfire had stopped, apparently the princess no longer bothered shooting her main guns at the almost dead-in the water carrier and instead choose to slowly approach, probably with the intention of mocking her in her final moments. But Zuikaku didn't intend of giving any Abyssal the satisfaction of being the one to actually cause her to slip below the surface.

'What are you saying, Nanodesu?!' I'll just tow you back.' Inazuma protested in tears while already having problems holding Sendai.  
'Both of us? I don't think so. Just go ahead, it's fine.'

'Foolish destroyer, you should have listened and ran while you still could.' The echoing voice suddenly broke up the conversation.

Zuikaku and Inazuma turned into the direction the voice came from, with all their arguing about whether Inazuma should leave the carrier behind, the Abyssal had somehow managed to catch up with them and had already brought her guns into position. Even though the Abyssal was already damaged from, what Zuikaku assumed, the hit Kirishima must have landed on the princess rigging, she still had enough firepower left to easily sink them.

The crane let out an inner sigh and pointed the destroyer away again and slowly steamed into the battleship's direction, while her remaining secondaries started firing again. Of course she knew that what she did was pointless, even though she barely used them she still knew that there was no way her 12.5cm guns would make it past the dreadnought's armor. However Zuikaku didn't intend to damage the princess in the first place. In contrast to the past where there were thousands of sailors operating her, making up for each other's faults Zuikaku was now a single low entity, reliant on her own strengths and weaknesses, but the same was also true for the Abyssals. And so Zuikaku's intention wasn't to actually damage the princess, but disorient her by aiming straight for her face.

'You insolent, little -'the princess roared as one of the shells exploded right into her face, and started shooting her guns at them again. However, as the twin tailed carrier had planned, all the Abyssal got out of them were sloppy shots due to being unable to see through the shell explosions Zuikaku did her best to keep coming.

'Run already and then shoot all your torpedoes at once!' Zuikaku screamed at the destroyer while using her remaining strength to get on a collision course with the battleship. At this point, Zuikaku knew that she would go out, but the least she wanted was taking the Abyssal with her. Her approach was neither straight nor especially fast, and the only thing that kept the princess' shells from hitting either of them was Zuikaku's suppressing fire.

Inazuma steamed away in tears, as she prepared her torpedo tube to fire and as soon as she was at maximum range the torpedoes shot out of their tubes and rapidly moved towards the crane and its opponent.  
Meanwhile Zuikaku kept pushing forward, towards the princess, evading her shots as good as she still could in her heavily damaged state.

Zuikaku yelled towards the destroyer, 'Tell Shoukaku-nee that-' but was abruptly stopped in her sentences as a salvo of the Abyssal's side guns managed to hit her in the stomach, throwing her back several meters and making her land flat on the ocean. For better or worse, she was somehow still afloat and weakly got back up on her feet with a blurry vision coming from her right eye, while the left one seemed to be totally blinded and all she could hear was an annoying ringing in her head. She checked tried to check her rigging with her hands and frowned while panting heavily. That last hit had totally destroyed her 12.5cm guns, making her unable to keep up suppressing the Abyssal with shellfire. Defiantly her few remaining AA guns shot towards the Abyssal while her tinnitus slowly receded, making the gunfire louder in return while the vision on her right eye also slowly returned to normal. Whatever damage the princess did to her optics, had apparently been repaired by her fairies.

The Princess stood there with an angry grin that spanned through her slightly scourched face, while all but one of Inazuma's torpedoes simply sizzled past her with the remaining one being kicked out of trajectory by the Abyssal's foot. 'Thank you for telling me where you where by shouting around so much, you foolish bitch.' The Abyssal laughed into Zuikaku's half burned off face. 'If you had just shut up your stupid trap your plan might have even worked. It's a pity your little friends got away, but I'll just take my time with you instead.'

The Abyssal dreadnought again didn't bother shooting Zuikaku anymore and simply walked towards her, while her opponent's AA guns merely ricochtted off her skin.  
'Now you fool... I'll make sure you'll sink into the chilly place.' she taunted the carrier.

Then something unexpected happened and the Abyssal's other gun exploded while battleship sized shells rained down from the sky. Zuikaku grinned a bit, thinking that the Kongous had somehow managed to get into firing range, before she went to her knees that suddenly felt extremely weak.

Both Zuikaku and the dumbfounded princess looked around, but couldn't make out the source. Then Zuikaku felt dizzy and collapsed onto the ocean surface again, her strength had finally left her. Before her vision faded, she got a quick glance of one of the shells, and was confused. The shells that rained onto the princess where too small to come from the four fast battleships.

When Zuikaku came to again she was surrounded by familiar faces. Even though her vision was blurry she could see that Inazuma had come back for her, and the Kongou sisters too had caught up by now.

'See? I told you that everything is fine as long as she doesn't sink below the water ~ desu!' Kongou said full of energy.  
'Couldn't you have started shelling that bitch a bit sooner.' Zuikaku coughed weakly while being thrown over the fast battleship's shoulder.  
'That actually wasn't us...' Haruna noted while pointing at her and her sister's guns.

And really as much as Zuikaku could see with her one blurry eye, the only one of the sisters with any cannons left to speak of was the one carrying her while the other two only had their secondary guns left to fire, as it was, the only ones in their strike force that could still use were Kongou and Inazuma while the rest of them was down to their secondaries with herself and Sendai being completely useless.

'By the way Zuikaku, you should better not look at anything that might mirror for a while.' Kirishima said a bit concerned.  
'What why?' Zuikaku asked looking at the battleship.  
'And please don't look at me either... Let's just say you'll be in the dock for a while.'

Zuikaku then looked at the ocean surface and started struggling in shock. 'What the fuck?!' She shouted out while fumbling around so much that Hiei had to slap her in order to calm her down again. The left half of Zuikaku's face had literally been burned away, revealing her skull at several places while other parts where held together only by strings of burnt flesh with her left eye completely missing.

'Don't worry, I'm sure Akashi can fix you up again ~ Nanodesu.' Inazuma whispered meekly.  
'I hope that bitch is freezing to death down there.' Zuikaku gnarled.  
'Aehm...' Kirishima laughed insecurely 'About that... When the Russians bombarded her, and we came along too she kinda...Fled...'  
'You let that bitch escape?! And wait what Russians?!'  
'The ones I went to thank for keeping you afloat ~ desu' Kongou sighed. 'Do you have any idea how annoying that was?'  
'Like I care! What where they doing here in the first place?!'  
'Well to begin with, they weren't here as in: ''in our waters'', their battleships shelled them from afar, also they were looking for the Abyssal that surprised you so let's not look the gift horse in the mouth here.' Kirishima said while adjusting her glasses. 'Plus, we should stay silent from now on. As damaged as we all are drawing Abyssals towards us isn't a really good idea so we can't radio in either.'  
'But-'Zuikaku wanted to disagree.

'And the flagship is me and we are doing just that. Now shut up and deal with it ~ desu.' Kongou stopped the carrier's complaint.

* * *

Smith looked out the porthole and looked into the distance. Ever since that dinner almost a week ago his daughter hasn't spoken a single word with him while also actively avoiding him. Somehow he must have stepped on a landmine, worsening their relationship even more.

When not around him, she was a calm, maybe spoiled little princess, but by no means as challenging as when he was in the same room. And even though Shizuka kept saying that Yuki didn't hate him, he was certain she did, and thus didn't appreciate his in-law's attempts of fixing things too much. And yet he still agreed to another dinner, since he had more than enough time while the ship passed through the canal anyway.

As much as he would have wanted to delve into possible outcomes of tonight's dinner, right now he had to focus on a completely different issue, namely the pouting Yorktown class carrier on his office's couch. For the last few days one of her fleet mates went around asking pretty much everyone to contact Japan because she was worried about her sister but the one she should have told to begin with, namely Enterprise. As it turned out, her sister was indeed rather damaged and almost sank, and had it not been for a Russian patrol in the area her entire fleet would have sunk.

Afterwards they apparently slowly steamed towards the nearest base until they had, by sheer coincidence, spotted the _JDS Atago_ who was patrolling the coastal area, running just as silent as they were, with the only life sign of them being a red dot telling the JMDS that the _Atago_ was still afloat. As a result all seven of them were officially listed as sunk for a few days, although he had heard about everything just now as his ship had entered the heavily guarded area around the Panama Canal and thus no longer needed to run silent until they had passed the locks.

And while he was happy that he could tell the Japanese ship in question that her sister was fine, he knew that at the very moment she'd come through the office door he'd be the one having to deal with the fallout of Enterprise insistence of staying in the room.

'Stop pouting already. You didn't really think you'd be drinking buddies, did you?' Smith said while rubbing his eyes with his right hand's pointer finger and thumb.  
'Ninety years and she is still bitching about getting sunk.'  
'Just sit there and do the ghost - and ghosts don't talk.' Smith sighed. 'Besides, you should probably not talk. Remember when I first met you bunch?'  
'Oh come on, that was ages ago!' The carrier pouted while crossing both her arms and legs.  
'Ages as in ten years ago, as opposed to the ninety years you are referring to. So stop being so hypocritical.'  
'Hmpf, fine!'

About ten minutes later, Mutsu brought the white haired carrier in question, and he instantly pointed her to sit in the armchairs in front of him.

'You wanted to talk to me, Admiral?' The Shoukaku asked while trying to avoid Enterprise's gaze.  
'Really, because I heard it was the other way around.' He deadpanned while his own carrier kept pouting.  
'Actually I just wante-'  
'I know what you wanted, I want to know why about 200 other people have heard about it, just not your flagship.' He cut her off in the middle of the sentence.  
'I-'  
'Should have totally asked me during the, I don't know, twentyish chances you had.' Enterprise cut in.  
'Didn't I tell you to stay out of it?', Smith glared into his carrier's direction.  
'Why? You always tell us that fleet problems are ours to solve before they are yours. And yet I didn't even get a chance to.' Enterprise said and quickly added a 'Sir.'

Smith facepalmed. That was indeed one of the first things he had told them when he came back from his leave after his involuntary stay with the Abyssals, it had just never backfired before. Even Mutsu, whom he probably told something similar at some point seemed to silently agree on the matter that they should at least try solving their problems without his intervention.

However, unbeknownst to Smith, the battleship didn't do so for no reason, as she had clearly told Shoukaku that she'd ask herself should Enterprise proof unreasonable regarding the matter. As such, Mutsu never felt the need to take care of it, as Shoukaku had yet to try talking to her flagship to begin with and thus only punished the white haired carrier with disapproving eyes.

'Fine,' Smith said after clicking with his tongue. 'just make sure I won't rue it in two minutes.'

'So mind starting by telling me what the heck your problem is?' Enterprise said as she jumped up and approached the crane carrier.  
'Aehm I don't like the sound of your planes?' Shoukaku whispered while also avoiding looking Enterprise in the eyes and sunk deeper into the arm chair instead.  
'And I'm supposed to feel comfortable around something that not only bombed me but also tried crashing into me? Look I get it, we used to bomb each other and you don't feel comfortable around me, but that was just childish.' Enterprise sighed in a calm voice without letting Shoukaku get to speak. 'Look, we all get that you are the only carrier Japan sent over, but newsflash: We all use the same planes and you will eventually run out of yours too, meaning that you'll get some of ours instead. - Oh and speaking of planes, neither of us is 100% comfortable with planes that used to try crashing into us around either. My freaking elevator got blown up 400ft into the air and yet I'll still retrieve your planes should you get damaged, so can you please at least give me a chance to earn your trust, because I was actually looking forward to working _with_ you for a change.'  
'I was afraid you'd say no...' Shoukaku finally got to word.  
'Huh? Why would I, I had been worried sick too, if it was one of my sisters. She is fine by the way, a bit banged up but she'll live. Next time just ask me, Ok? I literally heard about it just yesterday when Cmdr Knight couldn't find the admiral.'

Smith was surprised, he actually didn't expect Enterprise to remain relatively calm. In fact he half expected that he would need earplugs after her second sentence. Of course he still thought his secretary partly hypocritical, and remembered how his ship girl's expressions changed when they first saw his wife and Shizuka.

Wait, what was that about no restocks on planes?' Shoukaku suddenly exclaimed.  
'The JMDS officers left a small supply here before they left, but that is all we have.' Smith answered in Enterprise's stead.  
'Can I please borrow a few of your planes to get used to them then?' Shoukaku sighed in resignation.  
'Oh my, behaving mature again.' Mutsu teased smiling before addressing Smith again.  
'As I see it you two can discuss the rest out alone. Dismissed.' Smith said while looking at the clock a bit nervously, before he added. 'All three of you.'

Once everyone had left his office, Smith stood up and switched off the light and locked the room before he left for his port quarters for his dinner. While walking the suspiciously quiet hallways he started to question the fleet assignments he had written the other day, but still had no intention of changing them either. Those two would simply have to deal with it, and it wasn't like Shoukaku had a general American problem either - more like an Enterprise specific one.

When he finally arrived in his quarters the table was already set, and the two women had obviously been waiting for a while now. 'Sorry, ship girl drama.' Smith apologized and put his hat on the rack before he sat down. To his surprise there wasn't much of a discussion about it, and Shizuka could serve dinner without a parent and child fight between Smith and Yuki. Rather than that, the only one who tried leading a conversation was his sister-in-law. Yuki on the other hand was completely silent, and didn't even speak when she passed the pepper on, but instead remained silent.

Smith sighed, she was apparently totally mad at him. In other words she was just like her mother when she was angry, and yet much less mature about reasons and how to approach it, so he wasn't entirely sure whether it would be better to not address the issue or just apologize and hope Shizuka would stay out of it in case Yuki would make a snappy remark.

'Listen Yuki, I'm sorry I was late.' he eventually decided to start.  
'It's not an issue, it's not like I expected you to come in the first place.' She answered in a cold voice without changing her expression. 'If you want to make it up to me you could start by stopping to brush me off onto that German.'  
'Look I can't let you run around here alone, even actual ships can get lost in here.' he tried to sound as apologetic as possible  
Yuki sighed. 'Let's just stop, you obviously don't know why I'm mad at you anyway.'

That one stung, though it wasn't the first time he heard it. Every time her mother was mad at him, she would go like that too. First she would let him apologize, and then ask whether he actually knew why she was mad at him. The big difference between mother and daughter was that the former generally refused to fight with him the way Yuki did.

'You are mad because I don't know what you are mad about.' Smith guessed while trying to sound as confident as possible.  
'That too.'

Afterwards the room went silent again. If his wife could be taken as an example, it was best to leave it at that until he actually knew what he was apologizing for, so Smith didn't press the issue any further for now.

'Can I please have the salt, aun-. Nee-san?' Yuki addressed Shizuka  
'Why do you keep insisting on being called nee-san?' Smith sighed on the scene.  
'I'm not even 28, why would I want to feel like 41?' Shizuka snarled.

Suddenly the phone rang, and kept ringing despite being deliberately ignored until Smith stood up and picked up the receiver, not without apologizing first.

'I told you so.' Yuki whispered to her aunt.  
'This better be good, Knight.' he said into the phone and listened to what his first officer had to say. 'Hmm, the television?'  
Smith walked took the remote and switched to the news channel and turned up the volume.  
The flash panel read 'Abyssals inside Pearl Harbor, Navy and Air Force powerless.'

Then the camera moved around, going by the movements and how close it actually tried to get Smith assumed that it must have been a drone. Soon afterwards followed the first pictures, the few ships inside the harbor were mostly undamaged. Yet most of them were still docked, with no personnel being visible, probably to avoid making the Abyssal's think they should shoot the ships. The few destroyers that actually weighed anchor on the other hand were already embedded into the seabed, but with a bit luck some might still be in a state where they could be lifted and repaired. Another good thing was that the _USS George G. Meade_ and its escorts didn't seem to be inside of the bay, so at least the USN wouldn't have to count a carrier under the casualties. The bad news was, that the Abyssals also moved towards the island from outside of the bay, sure they were not attacking right now, but in the end it was just a matter of time until they decided to unleash their wrath onto the civilian populace.

Suddenly the picture turned into a mixture of black and white flakes, apparently the drone was finally shot down.

Meanwhile the announcer reported about the situation, but Smith had completely blended her out.

'Sir? SIR?' The XO on the other end of the phone kept repeating.  
'Sorry, I was absent for a moment... How the hell did they get in there?' Smith answered.  
'No one knows, they apparently just appeared right in the middle of the bay, needless to say that the Air Force couldn't even launch their planes.'  
'Make sure they keep it that way and then give me whoever is in charge of the base right now.'  
'I'm afraid I can't do that right now, there is a call for you in the situation room. - It's the President.'  
'Tell him I'll be there ASAP. And by the way, sound General Quarters and get us out of the canal, top speed.'  
'Aye sir!'

'I'm sorry Yuki, but we'll have to to continue this another time.' he apologized to his daughter before addressing his in-law in a work-like manner. 'Is my CMO coming too or will she skip the meeting that will inevitably follow, .?'

A few seconds later the alarm sounded, and the light system started dying itself red and blinked, followed by a soft computer generated female voice. 'GENERAL QUARTERS, GENERAL QUARTERS, ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLESTATIONS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.'

'You are not going to hold that one against him, are you dear?' Shizuka whispered to her niece before leaving the room with Smith, leaving the admiral's daughter alone in the slowly dimming room.

* * *

 _ **A/N:** I didn't want to spoiler anything so I couldn't say this earlier: I'll use this chapter as an opportunity to say it: All non-Japanese ship girls that are already in the game will be in this story as proper characters sooner or later. (Not just as short cameos like in this chapter.)_


	5. Ch5-The occupation of Pearl Harbor Pt 1

'As most of you already know, the Abyssals somehow managed to appear right in the middle of Pearl Harbor.' Smith explained while a tactical satellite picture flashed up in blue on the screen behind him. 'And just to make it clear, we have civilians on board so I take it as a matter of course that nothing of what I say in this room will leave it's confinements.'

It's been two days since the Abyssals took over the Pearl Harbor, and both humans and ship girls were on the edge, and even the ONI still didn't have a clue where Abyssals came from or how exactly they had managed to get past the giant bulkhead door in front of the basin. Another factor was that from the moment on the news had spread, a lot of plans had to be changed. While the Enterprise was originally supposed to meet up with a larger fleet consisting of both military and civilian ships, she now sailed towards pearl harbor at flank speed with only its two Zumwalt destroyers as an escort, while they would meet up with the _Nimitz_ later. Of the original fleet that was supposed to join them, once they had left the Canal, only the _USS Nimitz_ could actually be taken with them as she was the only ship that could cruise at flank speed without wasting precious fuel.

Of course the carrier's captain wasn't too happy about leaving its main defense behind and rely solely on two destroyers and a ship that had yet to shoot a single shell, but there was nothing that could be done about that as no one knew when the Abyssals would change from merely sitting duck in the bay to causing mayhem on the island. However the Abyssals in the bay were no longer their only problem. While the USN instantly redirected all available ships - conventional ships, that is - , the Abyssals did just the same and now had a rather rare fleet approaching Hawaii from the west pacific.

'Why don't they just put the girls still stationed in the base out and let them deal with the problem from inside?' Jersey interrupted.

'They obviously tried that. Not only did they get heavily damaged before they could even get onto the water, but the Abyssals also bombarded the shipgirl docks in retaliation. None of them sunk, but most are far from being battle ready. Plus, none of the girls inside is really accurate enough to shoot life ammunition inside the bay. '

As Smith said that, the screen suddenly zoomed in and showed a ship deeply burrowed below sea level, with another one staying close by but not doing anything. 'The first problem would be that a wild shell could hit the _Arizona_ and cause the remaining fuel in her tanks to explode, resulting in unpredictable amount of collateral damage. The second one is this.' Smith said and the screen moved a bit to the left, now being focused on the Missouri. 'As you can see, Missouri's hull is rather close by, ignoring any damage to the hull itself the ship currently serves as a museum and there were a lot of visitors that day who are now holed up inside the ship and can't leave. In other words, aside from the _Enterprise_ only Yamato and you four are accurate enough for command to risk a firefight inside the bay. However the real problem is sitting near the Arizona.'

When the satellite moved its focus back to the area near the _Arizona_ all the shipgirls in the room groaned, the moment the screen finished zooming. While the image didn't show any signs of the demonic beast's owner it clearly showed the demonic beast hat sat next to the memorial structure, just waiting to fire its 16'' inch guns at anything that could move against it or any of the other Abyssals inside of the bay.

'In addition we've got unidentified Abyssal rigging here. We still have to see any sign of its owner, but thermal imaging confirms its presence.'

'Shouldn't all of us battleships go inside of the bay then, Admiral?' A tall blonde girl with blue eyes, wearing a black and grey officer's hat asked, while sitting while crossing her arms and legs.

'As if your miniature shells could actually get through that armor.' Jersey chuckled.

'Want to find out?' The blonde retorted in a calm but rather hostile tone.

'I'd love to see you try.' Jersey answered while completely ignoring the blonde heavy cruiser in a similar grey-black uniform that got in between them to keep them off each other.

'Quite.' Smith cut the argument short. 'If we put all of you inside the bay we won't have enough battleships to counter the fleet approaching from the west.'

'Can't we just get battleships from another base then?' Iowa asked.

'No we can't.' Smith sighed. 'The other base commanders are worried that the Abyssals might use the chaos to attack the other bases too, so none of the base commanders is too eager to lend out battleships. So I can only send three of you heavy weights inside of the bay.'

'What just three?! Against all the Abyssals inside there?!' Atlanta complained. 'Do you want to kill the rest of us?'

'If you shut up and listen, no one has to sink, Atlanta.' Smith silenced the blushing light cruiser before replacing the satellite images with a live feed of one of the fleets approaching from the west causing an even greater uproar inside the room. 'As you girls can see, three have to be enough, unless you want them to make it inside the bay and fight them there.'

The reason for the increased uproar was a particularly large amount of fleets approaching from the west, which made the decision not to redeploy girls from other bases even more unreasonable. And yet, Admiral Smith still knew that the other admirals had a point in their argument. The moment they took ships from other bases, those bases would become more vulnerable to attack, and if he was the one who had to pick between having the Abyssals on the mainland versus loosing Hawaii, he'd still consider the latter the more sensible choice.

'And what is that red dot near Hawaii?' Enterprise asked, pointing at the blinking red dot in the pacific.

'Don't ask things you don't want to hear the answer to.' Smith groaned. 'In short, it's an additional fleet that we won't be able to intercept in time, I'll get to them in a bit.'

'Why don't we use that battleship inside bay? There are already people inside so using it to surprise them from inside should be possible. ' Yahagi asked causing the ''owner'' of the hull in question to sigh depressed.

'As I already mentioned, we are talking about a museum here. Even if I wanted to risk firing cannons that haven't seen action in decades, there is neither powder nor live shells on board. Besides, even she was actually battle ready, she'd just get broadsides from the entire bay the very moment the turrets start turning.' Smith explained and then brought up the map of the island area again.

Smith continued on with the screen following and predicting his actions autonomously. The battle plan seemed rather simple, first they would clear out the area on the eastern side of Hawaii, so the CTFs around the _USS George G. Meade_ and the _USS Gerald R. Ford_ wouldn't have to worry about any hostiles there and could instead provide air support against the western fleet. In the next phase of the battle, most of them were to intercept the fleets on the western side of the pacific theater, while the third conventional carrier in the area, the _USS Nimitz_ , would stay with the _Enterprise_ to help with the Abyssals inside the bay. The real problem however was Hawaii itself, as the Abyssals had apparently somehow taken over the gates control rooms, blocking any ships from getting in our out of Pearl.

'Our biggest problem will be the gate inside the bay. Since we haven't heard anything from them it's safe to assume that all the guards are already dead, so we have to force it open.

Don't even bother trying to shoot it open on your own, that thing could probably tank a nuke.' Smith exaggerated as he zoomed in on the gate. 'Our best chance is for the Enterprise's guns to puncture the gap between the locks enough for a missile to open up a hole big enough for you girls to fit through. Again, don't waste your ammunition on it, you won't get through.' He added while looking specifically at the four Iowa-class girls and then finally showed the red dot his secretary referred to earlier.

The room was suddenly filled with silence. When Smith looked into the round, he was met with a mixture of shock and disbelieve. While Smith had seen a lot of princesses at the same time and place before during his involuntary stay at an Abyssal base, it was clear from their expressions that not even the Japanese shipgirls had seen that many princesses at once and there was also the matter of the owner of that demonic beast near the _Arizona's_ wreck.

'It is possible that they will be damaged to some extent when you meet then, as the local army regiment thinks it's a good idea to welcome them with its tanks. Personally I expect nothing short of a blood bath, but neither the Governor nor General Lacy would listen. Therefore, the more likely outcome is you having to face them with full power and maybe a bit less ammunition. The ones that will go in are Iowa, Wisconsin, Yamato, Teruzuki and Atlanta. Enterprise and Saratoga will launch their planes from outside and only get in once the situation has become less volatile. The rest of you girls will meet up with the _Meade_ and the _Ford_ and help them with the Abyssals.'

'Excuse me, Admiral,' Missouri said in an unusually challenging tone. 'why do I have to stay with the carriers, when it's literally my stern getting blown up if any of them misses?!'

'And that's the exact reason I want you to stay out of it. I don't want anyone to sink in there, so the last thing I need is you getting sentimental over your hull. In fact, I want all of you to retreat in case you get too damaged. If you can win it, please do if not get the fuck out of there and I'll put a nuke on their heads instead.'

'The fuck?!' the Americans protested in unison while the Japanese began to murmur with each other. 'You can't just nuke Hawaii.'

'I don't like it either, but it's a direct order from above. We can't have an Abyssal base this close to the main land. Besides, the quick death of a nuclear blast can be considered mercy killing compared to what the Abyssals will do once they are in full control of the island.' Smith retorted bluntly.

'Then speak to above the above!' Missouri snapped.

Smith sighed. 'There is no above. These orders come directly from the president of the United States. We'll evacuate whoever we can during the battle, but make no mistake: This is a case of ''the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few''. If they take Pearl, a lot more people will die within the next few years if we lose you girls too, so you take priority.'

The American ship girls couldn't believe what they had just head. It was obvious why the USN wouldn't let borrowed ships like the Japanese fight to the last, but not only did each of them have memories there, their own Admiral was openly talking about destroying an entire part of their own country and making it uninhabitable for at least a decade to come, while each of them would happily throw her life away for that small pacific island.

'There is one more thing.' Smith added, despite their disappointed looks. 'I won't be there to give you orders during the battle this time. Thanks to General Lacy being a fool, there is something I must retrieve from the island before the Abyssals can get to it. '

'As if we'd let you go there!' Enterprise jumped up and several other ships held their hands in front of their mouths in shock. 'Why do you think those people are hunkering down inside Missouri's hull instead of just walking out?!'

'This isn't up for debate. I'm the only one nearby who can retrieve what I'm about to get, plus I'll be escorted by a SEAL team, so there is nothing to worry about.'

'You could at least take Eugen and me with you.' Bismarck interjected only to be cut off by the Admiral again.

'You are both needed on the battlefield, and while I did manage to get two more battleships from the other bases after all, they won't arrive in time to substitute for any of you, nor would I let them. As usual, I'll meet the flagships again in 2 hours, so you can address any remaining concerns with them. Until then you are all dismissed.' The American admiral finalized his decision and left the briefing room.

When Smith said dismissed the Americans, and the two adopted ones, finally gave up, as they already knew that 'dismissed' was his way of saying 'end of discussion'.

However that didn't stop them to swarm their flagships to complain instead, which now also included Mutsu who wasn't used to be swarmed like that right after a briefing and was further unsure what to do with Wisconsin and Atlanta who were supposed to be in her fleet but now assigned to the fleet going into the bay and she was sure the rest of the Japanese ships would come to her too if there was something on their mind.

 _'These are going to be long two very hours...'_ she thought, her only comfort being that she knew none of her ships would complain about being used in the operation.

* * *

'Hey Yuki, have you heard? We are going into a battle. Isn't that totally cool' a boy around Yuki's age said.

'Yeah, my dad just told me not to worry too.' another girl said.

'Urgs... Don't let me get started.' Yuki frowned. 'I had to clean up all the dishes on my own because they just left me alone in the room when they heard.'

'Shouldn't you worry more about your father?' the girl said. 'I listened in on one of dad's phone calls and-'

'He is an adult, he can take care of himself, Faith.' Yuki brushed her friend off. 'Besides why should I worry, he doesn't give a shit either.'

'Yeah but going anywhere near those things is just crazy.' the African American girl continued. 'I mean it's probably safer to jump into the bayou.'

'Yeah that's so typical da-. Wait what?!'

'Oh, your dad didn't tell you?' The girl said a bit worried, and made an attempt to calm her. 'Don't worry I'm sure he'll be fine, I mean he is a hero after all.'

'Huh, why would I be worried about him?!' Yuki gruffed defensively, 'It's not like he'd give a damn if I was anyway.' and walked off.

The two remaining girls looked at each other. 'She is always so nice, but the moment someone mentions her father she always becomes so difficult.' Faith sighed.

Yuki stomped through the hallway and grit her teeth. How could her father be idiotic enough to go anywhere near an Abyssal after what has happened years ago?

She still remembered everything as if it was yesterday. Her aunt wasn't home, when the door rang. At first she didn't want to open the door, but the man standing in front of it was someone she knew. Even now, years afterwards she still has to hold her tears back when she thinks back to the moment they handed her that flag. Yuki didn't remember what they said, nor did she hear any of it back then in the first place. Of course she already knew her father was missing, but no matter what happened he always came back so she didn't have a reason to think it would be any different that time. However, when those officers talked to her she had finally realized that she just kept making herself believe that and that her father wouldn't come back this time. For months there wasn't a single day she didn't wake up crying from the nightmares she had, while at the same time it was unsure what would happen with her.

Then, when her father came back after all, he was but a shadow of himself. What came back was more like a corpse that somehow managed to return from the grave and was now obsessed with revenge, just pretending to be still alive and barely being home anymore. Instead he spent most of his time with the girls whose failure had caused his ''demise'' to begin with, a sin Yuki still hasn't managed to forgive him for and spending most of his time with them instead of her, his own daughter, only made it worse.

'Auntie?' She called through the MedBay as soon as she had swung the door open.

'Back there.' A nurse said. 'But you can't go in there she has a patie-'

A note Yuki ignored and just continued to open the door. In the examination room sat a man with several bandages going from his head over his jaw, while several sailors guarded the place.

'Listen, I don't give a damn about whether you feel comfortable in the brig. Everyone single doctor involved agrees that you are fit for detention and I'm not going to overrule that. In fact your friend is far worse off than you.' Shizuka sighed and then looked to the open door. 'What are you doing in here?' She addressed her niece visibly and audibly unamused at her intrusion.

'I'm sorry Ma'm, she just ran past me.' the nurse apologized.

'Its fine Nancy, it's not like you could have stopped her.' Shizuka said. 'Just take her outside and make sure she sits still.'

'Yes, ma'am.' The nurse answered before pulling Yuki out of the doorstep, and scolded her. 'Really now I don't care if you are the Admiral's daughter, you can't just barge into other patients exams, especially not if they are dangerous pricks like that one.'

'But it was important!' Yuki complained.

'I don't care, young Lady. Now sit here and wait until your aunt is done.'

A few minutes later the door opened again and the heavy man was escorted out by the armed guards.

'You can come in now.' Shizuka gnarled from the other side of the door and instantly closed it behind Yuki once she was inside.

'The fuck where you thinking, just barging in here like that? You aren't the next queen here just because your father is an Admiral.' Shizuka scolded her.

'Did you know what dad is going to do?' Yuki frowned instead of listening what her aunt said.

'How do you know about that?!' Shizuka snapped back. 'No one is supposed to know about the nuke.'

'Huh who cares about a nuke - Wait what nuke?!'

'The one you were just yelling at me about?'

'No, I was going to tell you that he plans on going near one of those zombie girls...Wait a second, please don't tell me that he plans to outrun the nuke too.' Yuki said seemingly agitated.

'Let's both calm down a second.' Shizuka tried to calm her niece when she saw tears appearing in her eyes 'And forget anything you heard about that nuke.'

Shizuka then lead her to a chair and gently pushed her in. 'Want some tea?'

'Yeah...' Yuki replied surprised about her aunt's quick change in behavior.

'So what's this about Bruce and Abyssals.' Shizuka asked while pouring some water into a cup with a teabag in it. 'And where did you even hear that from.'

'Faith heard her father talk about it on the phone...Dad is going somewhere close to those things again...' Yuki stated in a mixture of sadness and anger.

Shizuka sighed softly when she put the cup down near her niece. Of course she has heard about the plan erase the island in case things go south, but the part with going near the Abyssals was new to her too. 'I'll talk to him later, promise.' she whispered while caressing Yuki's head.

'You don't have to.' Yuki sniveled silently. 'I hate him anyway.'

'You don't mean that, dear. And if you keep saying that Bruce will actually start believing you.'

'I don't give a damn. ' Yuki grit her teeth, 'Dad already died two years ago! Whatever came back then isn't dad anymore.' while tears kept flowing down her cheeks

'It wasn't easy for him either, you know, there are things you don't want to discuss with your daughter.' Shizuka said in a calming tone 'It's the world that's changing people, seldom it is the other way around.'

'I don't want to go to an orphanage...'

'As if I'd let you. I'm not just some student with some shitty part time job anymore, besides... As long as you are here, Bruce will always find the way home. So stop being a tsundere every time you are in the same room.'

'Who is dere?!' Yuki snapped following with both of them laughing. 'You should still marry, neither of you is getting younger.'

'Didn't I tell you to drop it' Shizuka sighed in an annoyed tone and flicked her niece on the forehead.

'Ouch.'

* * *

About an hour after Smith had shut off any further discussion, he let himself fall into the chair in his office.

'So how did they take it?' the tall African American man asked with a questioning look.

'Take a wild guess, Commander.' Smith sighed. 'Not even the JMDS girls liked it.

'Requesting permission to speak openly, Sir.'

'Granted.'

'In my opinion you should tell the president to go fuck himself for even suggesting going anywhere near that bunker. Retrieving that thing is Lacy's job.'

'Who told the President the exact same thing you want me to tell him and is now leading all his mean into certain death as we speak. At least there is a bright side to Lacy's man getting wiped out - the Abyssals probably won't even notice me going in there with all the ruckus that will cause.'

'You do know that they'll rampage if you die, do you? What is even in there that's important enough for an Admiral to go retrieve it, Sir?'

'That's classified information. Let's just say it might come in handy if things go south. ' Smith grunted.

Suddenly the door sprung open without anyone having knocked before and the annoyed flagships stormed in, while some other girls seemed to make a ruckus in the hallway. 'You can't seriously think of going in there,' Enterprise complained.

'I get the part about the nukes if we fail, 'Saratoga said a bit down. 'but there is really no need for you to recklessly endanger yourself, Admiral.'

'It's an order, and letting that thing fall into the Abyssal's hands might actually be worse than dying while trying to recover it.' Smith said while closing his eyes and sent Commander Knight out of the room to make sure things outside wouldn't escalate. 'Commander, make sure the hallways stay quite.'

'Aye Sir!' Knight saluted and left the room, not without closing the door to give the admiral some needed silence.

Smith looked at the third in the party 'And what are you complaining about, Mutsu?'

The Japanese battleship stepped forward and put her hand over her collar bone 'Admiral, there is really no need to worry about us. If any of us sinking can save an entire island we gladly will. And you could at least take Yuudachi with you too.'

Smith chuckled. He knew Mutsu didn't have any ulterior motives, but the notion of any of them gladly sinking while defending Hawaii still felt ironic. 'Thank you, but I got my own idiotic destroyer that keeps thinking she has to charge at cruisers and battleships alike. To be honest, if I could I'd not even take those Seals with me, so no I won't take any of your destroyers with me either.'

'If you wouldn't mind could you please stop calling Johnston an idiot, sir?' Saratoga murmured silently so that Smith could barely hear it.

'Why can't you just let us fight them off, with all our might?' Enterprise asked him pleading eyes while leaning forward over his desk. 'There is no need for you to go and risk your life. Also what about the others?'

'All ship girls, military personnel and their families will be brought to safety while the Abyssals are busy fighting.'

'And what about everyone else?' Saratoga asked with judging eyes.

'I don't like it any more than you do...' Smith answered with a rather emotionless tone accompanied by a fitting expression. 'But if you look at it rationally, if you girls sink you weaken the defense of over 320'000'000 people on the main land for less than 2'000'000 who would be dead the moment the Abyssals win anyway. And personally I'd pick a nuke over being eaten alive by one of those monsters any day.' At the very moment he had finished his sentence the door yet again sprung open without anyone having rung causing the Admiral to bellow in frustration. 'Has no one on this ship seen a damn doorbell before?'

'Out, everyone!' Shizuka demanded from within the doorstep causing the ship girls to fall silent.

'Whose office do you think this is, LtCmdr?' Smith grunted back at her. 'Whatever it is can wait.'

'I said out.' Shizuka glared at the shipgirls until they finally left the room, much to Smith's annoyance as not solving the issue was usually a really bad thing when it came to shipgirls and could result in all forms of undesirable shenanigans.

He still glared at his sister-in-law in disbelieve and barked. 'Are you out of your mind?! I don't care if you are my sister-in-law you can't just come into my office and send everyone out whenever you please!'

'Oh so I'm the one out of my mind now?' Shizuka clicked her tongue. 'I'm not the one planning on going near that thing while still needing sleeping pills from the last time I was near one.'

'Who told you that? That's classified information.' Smith frowned angrily while bringing his hand down on his desk.

'Yeah Bruce, it's so classified that your daughter and probably all of her friends know about it. No matter how big this ship is, it's still confined space. News travels fast around here.'

'I see that's the problem...' Smith sighed while letting his head fall into his hands, but quickly added, in a now muffled voice. 'That's not important enough to burst into my office like a fury.'

'Then how about your daughter bursting into MY office, while I had to deal with one of those two perverts down in the brig?' Shizuka hissed back and leaned forward in a scolding manner.

Smith let out a loud sigh, 'Why can't that that girl just behave as well as she pretends to at school?' but quickly resigned. 'I'll talk with her later. Still no excuse for YOUR behavior.'

'Bähhh' Shizuka winked and stuck out her tongue.

'Very funny, we'll discuss your punishment later, LtCmdr.'

* * *

'Desu!' One of Shoukaku's fairies complained as one of the Avenger bombers Enterprise had lent her way landed a bit too hard, which Shoukaku just refuted with a silent 'Shush.'

For the last few days, all the Shoukaku and the American carriers did was either eating, sleeping or letting limited numbers of planes fly around in the ship-girl hangar, since the Admiral refused to slow down a bit so they could train on the water like they originally intended to, and since they weren't allowed to train outside either they just decided to let smaller numbers of planes fly circles inside the ship. Of course none of them ever asked for permission, so the ship girls had to find a way to make sure that they would stay undisturbed.

As Admiral Smith's secretaries, Enterprise and Saratoga were of course aware of when the technicians would usually come and go to the ship girl hangar so all they had to do was making sure their riggings were in the storage slots. However, being able to train like this also came with a downside: Since no one knew they were using their equipment, there was also no one conducting maintenance on it, so they had to maintain it on their own.

The next hurdle they had to master was strategically placing ship girls around the corridors to the hangar, so they could warn them of any incoming humans and delay them if necessary. As it turned out, there was no reason for that though, as the most of the crew had a tendency to avoid them, so the only real obstacles were Mutsu, Bismarck and Missouri of whom they were sure that they wouldn't play along like the other ship girls.

Yamato wasn't considered a problem even for a minute.

Yamato knew firsthand how painful it was not to be allowed to train so it didn't take a lot to convince her that no harm would be done as long as no one outright forbade it, besides the battleship was usually spending her time with Iowa anyway.

'It's really too bad we can't even let them fly outside.' Yorktown said,' We could let them fly races.'

'Just drop it and be glad we can at least do this, Yorkie.' Saratoga hushed her.

'Oh come on what the Admiral doesn't know...'

'Little E will be in firing range of the bulk doors soon, so let's try to not get in trouble with the admiral until then.' Enterprise said while smoothly catching approaching Zero with her flight deck. 'I'm sure we can play around a bit when Pearl is save again.'

'''Little E'', seriously little sis?!' Yorktown deadpanned. 'If she were a shipgirl she'd probably be taller than Missouri.'

'Objection denied, I'm the more experienced one.' Enterprise shut her sister and closed her eyes while her fairies were busy writing diverse mocking sentences on one of Yorktown's Dauntless.'

'Hey, what the heck?!' Yorktown complained.

'She was supposed to land on me, so it's fair game.' Intrepid shrugged.

'Why you little...'

'Yeah, I'm the little one here, Yorkie. Or should I say 'Shortie'. ' Intrepid grinned.

'Are you looking for a fight?!' Yorkie puffed while both carriers got closer to one another, only to be stopped by a pair of hands pulling their ears down.

'If you two wouldn't mind, could you please not cause a commotion. Someone could hear you and check if everything is alright, it's still general quarters after all.' Sara sighed shortly before she suddenly let go of their ears causing both of them to fall down.

The rest of their tolerance training went pretty uneventful. Planes landed, got refueled and rose back into the air again for what felt like hours to the carriers, and the inner desire to use their AA guns instead of just letting their respective nation's planes land started to vanish more and more. Of course firing AA guns wouldn't have resulted in anything but useless clicking sounds anyway as they made sure no ammunition was loaded on both planes and ships beforehand.

Suddenly, Enterprise clapped her hands, 'Ok that has to do it. We should be there soon, so someone will come here sooner or later. Don't forget writing down how much fuel your planes have used so Sara and I can adjust the numbers later.' and then looked a bit unamused at one of her sisters 'And don't forget to not empty more than 1/3rd of an entire barrel, Hornet. - Refilling them is a pain.'

After everything was done, the carrier girls quickly left the hall and dispersed into different directions, while also picking up the destroyers they positioned along the way.

Shoukaku sighed, she had hoped to have a bit more time than a few hours a day to get used to the American planes, but every minute that passed was also a minute in which they got closer to the operation start. The ship's cannons would pierce a hole in the bulk doors, and a few hours later the ship girls would sail through right into the heat.

 _'I wonder if Zuikaku is any better yet.'_ Shoukaku thought smiling while she kept going upwards towards the deck.

Unlike the American's the Japanese ships had never seen a modern carrier before, so the ship girls got curious and decided to go take a look after dinner as they didn't have a chance to do so due to their training and guard rotations.

When Shoukaku entered the mess hall it was pretty empty, due to the ship still being on high alert, so a lot of people probably got their food delivered to their battlestations.

A few minutes later, the other carriers came in, the girls they had placed in the halls in tow, and a bit later the rest of her fleet came too.

'I wonder if the carriers are really as big as the admiral told us, poi~.' Yuudachi said lazily while cutting the steak in front of her.

'Ouf cuorsh they ae. Tsey are moore than a 1000 ft loong.' Sammy mumbled while chewing her hamburger, which instantly prompted Intrepid to flick her on the forehead, 'How often do we have to tell you not to talk with a full mouth, you little rascal.' before she grabbed Sammy's napkin and held it in front of her mouth. 'Seriously, how old are you?'

'How are they even supposed to help?' Teruzuki asked in a cute thinking pose. 'Can't the Abyssal's just easily evade? I've seen them do that before, although the bombs had a weird trajectory too.'

'Sounds like a smart bomb trying to adjust its trajectory.' Intrepid answered. 'Modern bombs can change their trajectory, but even with that it's pretty hard to hit an Abyssal or even their planes. I think they are using some kind of maneuvers one of the admiral's pilots came up with, when was still stationed on a carrier.'

'Come to think of it,' Enterprise remembered, 'the Admiral said something about having had to reinforce the planes lower frames, because the older ones ripped each other apart all the time.' and continued while cutting bit-sized pieces of her steak. 'I think they fly really close to another and then disperse right after shooting their payloads, or something like that. They usually fly in behind us and are really fast too, so it's hard to tell. Besides, no one wants to get yelled at for spacing out on the battlefield.'

'Even if they don't hit their target they are still damn good at distracting the Abyssals though.' Iowa added while gently taping ketchup out of a bottle. 'Just make sure not to rely on them too much, it's rare to actually have a super carrier to back you up.'

Once the shipgirls were done eating, they all headed up to a spot near Turret No2's side, from where they could see the Nimitz cruising next to them at high speed.

'Carriers have gotten a lot taller since our time, haven't they.' Shoukaku said a bit in awe of the giant steel fortress sailing besides them.

'She is even bigger than us too...' Yamato said, comparing herself, her sister and the four Iowa-class ships to the super carrier in their sight and the ship they were standing on.

'The carriers still lack cannons though.' Iowa chirped proud of her own firepower.

Suddenly the turrets behind them sprang into motion and started turning towards them while the guns raised their elevation level higher, apparently they were close to the spot from where they would shoot at the bulk doors protecting the harbor. Meanwhile, the _Nimitz_ started to slowly loose speed and initiated maneuvers to move to the _Enterprise's_ port side, gaining more distance to the Abyssals, that occupied the harbor, in the process.

'Maybe we should move a bit, if we don't want to feel the shockwave.' Saratoga suggested and lead everyone to a spot from where they would be clear of the shockwave, yet able to observe while the guns still moved into place.

'That should do, well for us shipgirls at least.' Enterprise while looking around the ship.

By now they were no longer the only ones wanting to watch, several civilians had tried getting closer to the spectacle too, only to be held off by naval security personnel. Of course a few of them complained about the shipgirls being allowed to stand closer on deck, but they were quickly rebutted by invitations to go down and move them themselves, causing Wisconsin to wryly wave up to them from below.

Although all complaints where now silenced, none of the sailors made any attempts of thanking her or giving her even as much as a thumbs up or a nod, instead she was completely ignored by everyone but the other ship girls now. - A treatment the fast battleship was already well used to from people who weren't just fresh out of the academy, so she didn't give too much about it.

Suddenly all the ship girls held their heads in pain as the turrets started their charging process, while some of the humans above them started to get slightly disorientated.

Even though it was just a moment, for the ship girls it felt like half an eternity as some of their less armored systems got disrupted.

'Warning, electromagnetic power fluctuations in main turrets one, two, three and four detected... Emergency shutdown initiated, please evacuate the area in an orderly fashion. 'Sounded through the PA system in the same mechanical voice that announced general quarters just a few days ago.

* * *

'What the fuck is up with my cannons, Lt. Sterling?!' Smith demanded from his officer while tapping his finger nervously on his chair's armrest.

Of course Smith was aware that the majority of the ship's systems were still not fully tested on sea and he had thus already expected that some issues would arise sooner or later, but all four main turrets failing at the same time was a bit too much to be a simple coincidence.

'We still don't know, Admiral.' Lt. Sterling answered while looking through her display. 'It seems like the power system somehow overloaded and activated the ship's failsafe protocols.'

'This is no coincidence, Sir.' Commander Knight spoke in a lower voice.

'Good I'm not the only one thinking that.' Smith grumbled, 'I could understand one or two turrets, and the rest being deactivated for safety. But all four having mysterious power fluctuations at the same time?', before he spoke up louder again. 'Tell Engineering that they got 20 Minutes to find what the problem is and 10 more to fix it. We are operating on a very restrictive time table here. I need these cannons back up ASAP.'

'Sir can I make a suggestion?' Knight asked.

'Make it.'

'According to her specifications, Astraea can run a full system analysis way faster than we could do without her. We should take advantage of her higher functions.' Knight suggested causing Smith who was absolutely against having DARPAs little pet project on his ship to begin with. In fact, the moment he heard its name he couldn't help but think that it might be somehow responsible for the unexpected problems with the ship's main armament.

'Fine, but don't blame me if she takes the ship hostage.' Smith sighed in resignation as he was out of options, due to having to leave the ship soon, or the entire retrieval operation he was to conduct would become a lot harder, as it built upon his girls being as noisy as possible while he and the SEALs would break into the bunker.

Reluctantly he started to tab his chair's displays. Unlike most other ships in the USN, the _Enterprise_ a lot of the Enterprise's main control systems looked like they were right out of a science fiction movie. For example, a lot of the heavily armored main bridge's input systems had touch screen consoles, which would instantly remind some people of certain science fiction series, with only few more conventional stations as an emergency backup. An Improvement the navy slowly started to fit onto all their ships that met the requirements.

However, that also meant that some ships started to look like a mish-mash of more conventional and touch screen consoles, as none of them could be out of action longer than necessary with the Abyssals around. Even the Enterprise still had a very small amount of them on board, although they were used more as a backup in case the new systems broke down.

The system Admiral Smith was about to activate could be described to be akin to a very advanced AI assistant, that could aid the crew in various ways, such as assisting in targeting or electronic warfare. Of course, and herein was Smith's, and a lot of other officer's problem, being a military AI, Astraea was only loosely bound by the laws of robotics and hence had a different set of laws than the usual three.

While the AI scientists at DARPA had ensured Smith over and over, that her highest principle was to protect the United States and its lawful citizens there were still a lot of loopholes a self-evolving AI like Astraea could exploit, so only command personnel had access to any functions that would exceed those of a normal AI assistant.

A good example would be that she had apparently decided to activate minor functions on her own earlier today when Smith had given the ship girls the mission briefing, much to Smith's dismay as he not only didn't ask her to help out, but also didn't particularly want her to provide any help in the first place.

All this and more made him complain enough for her to be put into basic functions which essentially reduced her to automated messages and detecting irregularities like she did with the power fluctuations earlier on, but wouldn't allow her enough access to fully assess the situation.

Once his Iris got scanned, Astraea sprang instantly started to fully boot up, visible on the main screen and her voice became much less robotic.

'Astraea online, how can I serve you, Admiral.' the AI asked.

Smith sighed. 'You can start by finding out what the heck happened to the main turrets and tell engineering.'

She instantly answered. 'Processing data... During firing sequence sudden bursts of electromagnetic fluctuations appeared within the turret's power supply, causing emergency shutdown in order to avoid an explosion. The problem seems to be rooted in both physical parts and software. Third-party intervention seems likely.'

'Tell me something new.' Smith grunted back still not being comfortable having her aboard in the first place.

'Affirmative. While I can overwrite any changes made on digital level, the ship will have to remain in dock for at least a week to fully reverse any unauthorized alterations to the turrets' power flow.' Astraea reported.

Smith frowned and stood up. 'Well you heard the robot, make it so. I got to make a phone call now.'

'Admiral, please wait.'

'Ok... look. If you want to stay activated we have to set some ground rules for you.' Smith facepalmed annoyed.

'While this is well within your authority, restricting my functions during this mission is ill advised as a temporary fix to turret one might be possible.' Astraea countered.

'Elaborate...'

'According to his resume, your Chief Engineer should be able to hot fix enough of the changes to allow for a single salvo from turret one within three hours. However, any such fixes would drastically reduce the turrets effectiveness until fully repaired. Hence, the ship would have to enter the presumed firing range of the Abyssals currently occupying Pearl Harbor.'

'Fine... Make it so.'

'There is one more thing, Admiral' The AI said, while the rest of the Bridge crew was astounded of what Astraea could do with some of them starting to wonder if she could tell any good jokes, while the AI continued totally uninterested in the mumbling, 'I took liberty of cross referencing the capabilities of any individual involved in the turrets and the ships construction or operation of the ship, and have assessed the most likely suspects. Gaining their cooperation might result in a significant acceleration of the process.' and then displayed two people on the screen.

A vein on Smith's forehead grew larger as he clenched his fist. 'Thank you, Astraea. 'Now start with whatever you need to do to fix my ship.'

'I took the liberty of already starting the process, and should be done within next 45 minutes.' Astraea reported.

 _'Why you little...'_ Smith thought trying to calm himself down. 'Rule one, you don't do anything without permission, is that clear?'

'Command accepted.' She said before falling silent.

'Should I get them, Sir?' Knight inquired, referring to the persons on the screen.

'Tell them to bring them to whichever one of them is fit enough to stand and bring them to the stern railing. In the meantime, get the ship wherever that electronic plague wants it.'

'Aye, Sir.' Knight said, knowing better than to question Admiral Smith's orders.

'Oh and tell them to bring me a pair of engineering gloves and whatever carrier or battleship they can find first.' Before he left the bridge and started stomping down the hallways towards the stern.

'Captain off the Bridge!' an Officer next to the door announced.

* * *

Smith stomped down the hallways thinking of various ways of getting the information he wants out of the saboteur as soon as possible, being totally lost in his thought. Even though he didn't like it, Astraea's deduction on the saboteurs' identities was perfectly sound, given that they had actually worked together which Smith didn't doubt for a second.

 _'Terrorists or another nation... I wonder one whose payroll those assholes actually are.'_ He wondered until he almost collided with a ship girl had he not quickly moved aside, causing smith to trip in the process.

'I'm sorry!' the brown haired girl said and almost threw her, in Smith's opinion way too long, ponytail into his face while bowing, resulting in the girl apologizing yet again.

'Its fine, I wasn't paying attention.' Smith sighed and no gallantly ignored the hand Yamato offered and got up himself.

'I'm sorry.' She apologized yet again, while her ponytail slashed forward, forcing Smith to quickly step aside.

'Will you stop apologizing already.' He sighed slightly annoyed, his annoyance being amplified by having to bend his neck backwards to see her face due to the short distance between them. 'your apologies are more leth-'

Suddenly Smith stopped talking and lowered his head while his expression turned vicious for a microsecond as an idea emerged in his mind, so he went off to the nearby intercom and told Commander Knight to belay one of his previous orders, while the battleship just watched him with a confused look on her face.

'Actually, I it's rather lucky that I ran into you.' Smith said with closed eyes and a forced smile before he turned away from her and continued making his way towards the ship's stern. 'Follow me, I need someone to catch something heavy before it falls overboard and damages the turbines.'

'Something heavy?' She asked still confused and a bit insecure while not having moved an inch yet, causing Smith to follow and look over his shoulder.

'When I say follow, I usually mean flank speed. Now move. We don't have all day.' The admiral frowned even more annoyed now, making the battleship quickly catch up with him.

'Uhm, Admiral... Why do you need a ship girl to carry something? Wouldn't it be easier to just use a forklift?' Yamato asked, still walking a few steps behind him.

Smith didn't turn around, and instead spoke into the hallway. 'Are you always questioning your orders?'

'Of course not, I'm so-'

'Will you stop apologizing already?' Smith snapped in a calm voice.

 _'Seriously, what's up with her.'_ He wondered, not knowing himself why the girl annoyed him so much.

Smith was perfectly aware that the current situation left him rather agitated, and he was sure the ship girl realized that, but for some reason Yamato had a natural talent to agitate him even more than ship girls usually tended to since he returned from that Abyssal base. It could be that her character didn't fit his imagination, after all so one would expect a shy and a bit insecure beauty when picturing the world's largest battleship. Maybe that was it, she was just not intimidating enough for his liking. Frankly, the only thing he thought slightly intimidating was her height, a thing he was however well used to from the Iowa-Class ships that were still slightly taller than Yamato.

No, it had to be something else. Something he couldn't put his finger on, which annoyed him even more, than her insecurity. - Not that it mattered much. The girl would certainly hate him after this and avoid talking to him in the future.

'Excuse me Admiral?' Yamato pulled him out of his thoughts. 'What am I going to carry?'

Smith stopped for a moment without turning around, making her almost crash into his back, 'You will see that when we are there. Just make sure to grab it before it falls over board.' and moved forward again.

'Did I do anything to upset you, admiral?' She suddenly asked, having apparently read the atmosphere perfectly.

'Of course you didn't. Why would you?' Smith lied, while still not looking at her. 'In case you haven't noticed something is wrong with my ship, while at the same time over a million lives depend on it working as intended. If it doesn't get fixed soon I can as well just fire the nukes right now. So of course I'm tense, it's nothing personal.'

Suddenly he stopped in front of a SEAL holding a pair of gloves ready while guarding the exit.

'Thank you Warrant, that's all.' he dismissed the officer while taking the gloves off him and turned around to the battleship for the first time since they started walking through the ship together, 'Put these on. I doesn't matter whether they fit.' and mumbled inside his thoughts _'It's not like they are meant to protect_ **you**.'

He then waited patiently for a few moments before he fastened the gloves around her wrist, carefully avoiding any contact with the ship girl's skin.

'Eh?!' Yamato whimpered and blushed shyly when he suddenly took her gloved hands and fastened the glove's straps without any warning.

'Is your boiler OK? Your face is flushed. ' he said completely oblivious. 'Sorry but I don't have time to find another ship girl right now, so bear with it.'

'Oh... No... I'm totally fine!' she stammered.

'Good, because you better make good use of those 27 knots.' he said while opening the door to outside where a overweight man was waiting, with his hands behind his back, with a few more SEALs standing guard together with an engineer, who obviously wondered why he was here.

'Finally someone with the proper authority.' The man, who turned out to be one of the malefactor's from when Fubuki and Teruzuki got assaulted, complained having trouble to speak properly. 'The way you are treating prisoners is unacceptable Admiral. Just so you know, when my lawyer is done with you -'

What happened next put Yamato in a short state of shock. Before the man could even finish talking, his words turned into a pained wail as Admiral Smith's fist sunk into the man's stomach, shortly before he got turned around and held on his belt and collar. 'Catch' She heard him command, and quickly started to run while the flag officer violently threw the man against the ship's railing, and he would have fallen down too had Yamato not snapped out of it and grabbed the man's ankle's in the last second.

'Admiral what are you doing?!' Yamato gasped in shock while the SEALs just looked at each other while being just as puzzled as she was.

'Silence, and don't you dare pulling him up unless I tell you to.' Smith ordered before kneeling down so he could look the man into the face and shouted right into it. 'Fourth time you are messing with one of my ship's, asshole. What the fuck have you two done to my battleship now?!'

'Ahhhh... Wahhh' he wailed fearfully while looking down at the ship's wake and then up just for his shouts to silence and his face turning into a dirty grin for a second before Smith boxed him in the stomach.

'Don't you dare looking up her skirt now, you motherfucker, or I'll make sure she lets you fall this instant.' Smith snapped while Yamato suddenly turned red and put one of her hands against her skirt, almost letting Joe Ferret fall down in the process.

'I don't know what you are talking about!' Joe panickly tried to get his hands against the hull.

'Don't you lie to me. You two are pretty much the only ones with reason, skill and opportunity to screw with those rail guns.' Smith let his anger out. 'You got two seconds to tell me who you are working for, before I'll turn you into shark feed.'

Suddenly Joe fell silent, seemingly scared of the consequences of saying who his employer was. 'I don't know what you are talking about. All I know is that I'm gonna have your head for this! You are torturing an upstanding citizen here, you prick!'

'My ass are you an upstanding citizen! And if you don't tell me what you did to my ship, you'll wish I'd just let the battleship, whose escorts you ass tried to violate, use you as a punching bag. - No, I got something far more special for you, unless you start singing already.'

The man suddenly started to burst into laughter, while his face changed color due to his blood flowing into his head as he was held upside down for a while now, 'Are you done with you empty threats? In fact, you should beg me.' He spouted in anger, finally admitting to his crime. 'But I'll be generous, beg me and let me have my fun with that bitch and I might just te-' but got interrupted by Smith smacking him again.

'Look asshole, I don't know who you are working for, and frankly I actually don't give a damn.' He frowned before forcing is head to look right into the ship's wake again. 'You will tell us exactly what you did, or I'll order her to let you fall down, and don't you think you'll survive that. In fact the propeller will suck you in, and break all your bones one by one, just before it cuts off limb after limb while you'll suffocate from water flushing your lungs. Don't worry though, the propeller will cut you into bit sized pieces for the sharks so you won't actually drown.' Smith threatened.

'That is Murder, you can't do this!' Joe forced his head up and looked pleadingly towards the SEALs.

'And who do you think is going to stop me, asshole? The Japanese battleship whose escorts you almost raped, or the soldiers whose family might get eaten by Abyssal beasts, because we can't shoot those goddamn doors open?!' Smith shouted right back at him. 'Do you honestly believe anyone gives a shit if I dispose of a goddamn traitor like you. If anything they'll thank me for saving the tax money for your death row cell!'

'Death row?!' He gasped shocked.

'What did you think you get for high treason? They'll strap you to a chair and let the nearest power plant do the rest while laughing at your eye balls popping out of their sockets, while high currents cook your blood inside your veins. And if we are lucky you'll somehow survive the first time, and get an encore. '

'Fine I'll tell you...' he said, suddenly panicked, after his possible death's were described to him. 'Nothing that albino bitch offered is worth that.'

'Albino bitch?!' He asked. 'Spit it out, now.

'Some Abyssal bitch pulled us into an alley and told us we'll be well rewarded if we sabotage the _Enterprise_.' he stammered, his voice still distorted by the metal the surgeons had to use to help his jaw start healing. 'She looked really creepy too with that black hoodie and those sharp teeth. Can you pull me up already now?!'

Smith clenched his fist, causing the former Newport worker to close his eyes, 'You better tell us exactly what you did...' and then looked at the still shocked Yamato while winking the engineer over, 'You can pull him up now.' And waved his hand in front of her face when she didn't instantly react. 'Hey, earth to Battleship Yamato, I said pull him up!'

'I'm sorry!' she suddenly said in Japanese before regaining her posture and continuing in perfect English again. 'I'll pull him up at once.'

Once pulled up, the Engineer took over the interrogation, not without the SEALs keeping a close eye on their prisoner.

'You are too kind.' Smith said to a slightly depressed Yamato who seemed to have trouble holding her tears back. 'That man not only tried to violate two of your destroyers, but endangered an entire nation. Your sympathy is misplaced.'

'I'm sorry Admiral...' She apologized again, making Smith feel guilty.

'Listen up, you are a warship.' Smith sighed. 'You did worse things than giving someone a bit of a scare.'

'I know...' She said while looking down and clenching her skirt. 'And the worst is I don't even-'

'You will say no more and wait here, before you spout something stupid.', Smith frowned and then asked the Engineer if he was done, walking over as soon as the Engineer affirmed it, 'Good, now go tell your Chief exactly what he told you.' and suddenly pulled out a gun which he promptly unlocked and repeated put against Joe's Forehead who started to panic and try to crawl away backwards.

'Bu... I... You said...'

'You assumed I said.' Smith answered coldly with a stern face and pulled the trigger.

 _click_

'Oh... Looks like I forgot to put any bullets into the magazine.' Smith smirked while using an emotionless tone, following Joe's eyes first going blank before he fell unconscious, a puddle of fluid emerging from the unconscious at the same time, 'Put him back into his brig... And get someone up to clean this mess.' Smith ordered while putting his gun back into its holster, and went back to the super battleship.

'Yes, Sir!' The SEALs answered after short pause.

'And you go calm yourself down until someone calls for you.' Smith said a lot calmer now that he had vented his anger.

'Yes, Sir.' She said meekly, bowed slightly and turning around.

'JS Yamato.' Smith called her out one more time, prompting her to stop in her track, 'Instead of dwelling about things that happened hundred years ago, think of the millions your actions might have saved today.' after which the battleship walked away.

* * *

An hour later, Smith got the OK to fire the ship's guns once more, however the plan had to be adjusted slightly to which end Commander Knight was briefing the ship girl's right this moment, as he would be the one commanding them in his absence. Still, being there when his ship first fired its cannons was something he considered a captain's privilege.

Unlike before he now had to put the _Enterprise_ in danger, since the hot fix came with serious downsides to the turret's range, so he and the SEAL team would now use the _Enterprise_ as bait, while they got there via a speedboat instead of relying upon the ship girls making enough noise to cover their landing. By the time the girls would enter the bay, the team would have long slipped past the Abyssals, or so he hoped, and entered the bunker.

Of course everything would fall apart should the Abyssals leave the bay and actually follow the Enterprise, but the secondary guns and missile ports still worked, plus he doubted anything important or particularly strong would leave the harbor while the reinforcing princesses were still busy with General Lacy's troops, while the large fleet behind them would have to deal with the majority of the shipgirls and the Ford-Class carriers.

'Lock target according to the AIs projections.' Smith commanded.

'Target locked.' the weapon's office confirmed.

'Fire.'

This time the three cannons of turret one shot out their projectiles as planned, before the emergency shutdown took effect once more.

Instantly, the air around the fast flying projectile was set on fire as the tungsten shell made its way to its target where they pierced through it just enough for the rockets that would now follow to blast a hole big enough for the ship girl's to traverse through. At the same time, Astraea warned about an incoming air raid, prompting the CIWIS and lasers to spring into action, a few of the ship girls' fighters launching also joining in.

'Time for me to go.' He murmured before standing up towards the door. 'You've got your orders, gentlemen. Good luck.'

'Captain off the Bridge!' an Officer shouted once Smith walked through the door towards the hangar, where the SEALs were already waiting in wetsuits, with two of them holding his equipment looking at him in surprise.

'Are you planning on going in that?' a Lieutenant O'Donnell asked, referring to Smith, still wearing his regular service overall.

'I don't plan on getting wet.' he refuted, while putting the rest of the equipment on. 'Besides, I still have an appointment before we can go. - Don't worry it won't take long.'

'Pardon, Admiral?' the warrant from earlier said while Smith was already walking towards the door.

'Yeah, I got to put whichever ship girl decided to stop me in place.' Smith smiled with closed eyes, and opened the door. 'Well gentlemen, shall we.'

'Hello, Admiral .' The tall girls with a 62 and 64 on their clothes both chirped while giving him a suggestive wink.

Admiral Smith let out a heavy sigh and facepalmed, 'Seriously now, I expected Johnston or Atlanta to do something as dumb as this, looks like I gave you two too much credit.', before he signed the SEALs to go on without him. 'Heat up the engine, I'll be there in a few minutes.'

'With all due respect, Sir. Alone, you stand no chance against two ship girls, battleships at that.' O'Donnell objected.

'Aye, just listen, abandon this foolery, and spend some time with us instead.' Jersey grinned.

'Well let's assess the situation for a moment.' Smith explained to the SEALs 'Each of you could probably beat me in CQC anytime, but if you mix into this, they'll eventually knock us all out, meaning the mission would fail before it even started. On the other hand, if you continue walking you can still find an alternative solution to the problem for the unlikely case I can't remind those two not to get into my way.'

'Excuse me Admiral, but they'll beat the shit out of you.' the sole female SEAL noted.

'Nah, he'll just become number 347.' Jersey winked her off from the side.

Smith got annoyed now, 'O'Donnell, if I'm not through in ten minutes go without me and try to pick up what's left of Lacy from the battlefield.' and blocked the SEALs' objection before they could even voice it in a rather sober tone. 'In other words: If you stay, you'll be in the way. Now scatter already.'

Reluctantly following their orders, the SEALs carefully walked past the battleships and, to their surprise, actually stayed completely ignored as suggested by the Admiral.

'Aren't you awfully confident, Admiral.' Jersey said with a condescending expression while still trying to sound cute.

'I think he just hiding how much he is looking forward to doing it with us, sis.' Wisconsin spoke to him as if he was a complete fool for sending them away.

'I must say, I'm disappointed. You two realize that this isn't the first time I put a battleship in place, right?'

'You mean you surprised some 14incher and pushed her into the water.' Jersey corrected him.

Smith crossed his arms. 'Let's end this charade already, you two aren't the types for that.'

Wisconsin looked amused and also crossed her arms, copying his posture. 'That was before you started making dumb choices like walking right into the Abyssal's arms, Admiral.'

'Yeah it almost looks like you enjoyed your stay with them.' Jersey added 'So it's time to remind you where you belong. There is more than enough time to play around a bit with you before we'll have to sail over to the carriers and a few more before the sortie. Besides, you really need to get laid.'

'I guess it's my own fault you two became like this, isn't it.' Smith sighed in a low voice.

'Say what now?' Wisconsin asked not having heard what he said just like her sister didn't.

'Anyway, I don't have time to play around with you two mattresses. Now tell me, how should I best get past you two without actually damaging you.' Smith said in a tone projecting nothing but full confidence.

The truth however was very different from the way the admiral acted. The moment any of them would touch him, he'd probably empty his stomach over the floor before falling unconscious, and he couldn't ask them to put on the same kind of spirit energy blocking gloves he made the Japanese Battleship wear earlier today, and even if he did, it would expose that his body goes into fear mode the moment he gets too close to a ship girl to them, a prospect he didn't particularly look forward too, so he decided to use one of the flashbangs he retrieved earlier instead, although that also meant that he'd have one less on the mission.

'Are you out of your mind, Admiral? You do realize that we can't guarantee not breaking anything should you choose to fight us, do you?' Wisconsin lectured, while leaning forward and putting her hands against her waist. 'Spending some quality time with us can't be that bad compared to getting hurt, can it?'

'Well, I neither plan on getting hit nor touching any of you even with a ten ft. pole. Who knows what disease I might contract.' Smith taunted while slowly walking towards them putting his hands behind his back where he hid the flashbang from the battleships' view.

'Fine Admiral, you are on. Just don't complain that we were too rough afterwards.' the youngest Iowa-Class sighed as they both began walking into his direction.

He didn't answer and just kept walking towards them, silently staring at them while waiting for the right moment before he suddenly started charging towards them instead.

For a moment, the two were perplexed, but quickly regained their composure and tried to grab him, when he suddenly threw himself in the gap between the two, and then threw a cylindrical object into the air.

Jersey turned around, looking at the Admiral with a shocked expression while he kept running towards the exit while pressing his fingers against his earpieces as best as he could to dull the sound that soon followed.

Suddenly, both battleships were blinded while their ears started ringing so loudly that both of them had completely lost orientation, and smashed into each other, their faces having been blackened by the explosion

'Is everything alright, Sir?! O'Donnell asked Smith who stopped his slightly disorientated run and practically fell into the boat, only to be barked at back, telling him to get the fuck out of here once the ringing in his ears had subsided.

And as the boat speeded towards the coast, Smith waved triumphantly towards the two battleships.

'Call in with the ship, there is no way that no one heard that.' Smith told them, still holding his head while the SEALs looked at him. 'What don't look at me like that, those two were just telling a sick joke... maybe.'

'You said maybe...' The female SEAL said with a stunned expression.

'Yeah he did. At least we now know why we would have been in the way. He was bloody cheating.' O'Donnell agreed.

'You didn't seriously think I'd try to fight my way past them, were you?' Smith frowned. Even a heavy cruiser could easily kill an adult man, so of course I cheated. Let's just hope that flashbang isn't needed later.'

'Each of us still carries two of them, Sir.' A Chief ranked SEAL answered.

'Any more surprises you want to tell us about, before we land, Sir?' O'Donnell chuckled while waves caused by the _Enterprise's_ hard turn, away from the battlefield, made the boat rock a bit.

'Just that you shouldn't be the ones going into the bunker first.' The boat shook while evading a shell meant for the _Enterprise_. 'Maybe you should stop asking questions, and maneuver the boat.'

* * *

'So, let me guess.' Enterprise sighed while gently rubbing her temples. 'You two tried to stop the admiral and got your asses handed to you.'

Jersey complained with slightly singed hair and a blackened face, while being unaware of the knocking sound she could hear, not being an after effect of the flashbang, but caused by Mutsu, who kept hitting the walls around the corner gently while trying to hold back her laughter after having seen their scorched faces. 'As if! He cheated!'

Enterprise gave them a slow clap, 'You should have known better than to stop him.' and moved towards the two battleships to examine them. 'You two better take a quick shower, you only got an hour until you have to leave.'

'Mou, and I was so looking forward to have fun with a proper man for a change.' Wisconsin sulked.

'Will you shut up with your sick jokes.' Enterprise snapped. 'He has a daughter who could pass by and hear you.'

Both just looked at the hallway and said nothing for about 30 seconds. 'I kind of expected her to turn up behind you and say something like ''What sick joke'' Wisconsin looked a bit disappointed.

'And I expected damage control to think there was an explosion and spray you with a water hose, but we can't have everything we want now can we?' Enterprise facepalmed. 'Too bad we were here first, and Sara already called them off.' She scoffed and gestured towards the door. 'The commander expects you combat ready for the sortie, so move it. And please stop with the jokes already, there are children on board.'

'But we were-' Wisconsin started but got muffled by Jerseys hand having moved over her mouth while the other pushed her towards the exit.

Done with the two fast battleships, Enterprise, Mutsu and Saratoga moved back into the direction of the launch bay, for final adjustments to their equipments.

Sara's head was tilted slightly towards the floor. 'We really were lucky Yuki didn't hear that earlier.' The three ships stopped for a moment, while another 30 seconds passed. 'Fate really loves us today, doesn't it?' Sara smiled.

'Let's not tempt it then.' Enterprise chuckled as the three began walking again. 'Although, if we were in a movie, the laws of obvious plot triggers would have demand her having shown up.'

'Please, don't jinx it.' Saratoga tilted her head. 'We already got enough trouble as it is.'

'At least you two doesn't have to your sortie' Mutsu looked a bit sick.

'Aye.' Sara looked greenish too as soon as she thought about it. 'ships aren't meant to fly.' The three ship girls chuckled together. While transporting shipgirls via the air was rare enough, that usually only ship girls who were summoned earlier on would be able to tell tales about it, it still seemed to be a common occurrence that no ship girl actually liked being in the air, which is also the reason, aside from the danger of getting shot down despite stealth mechanisms, why the Japanese fleet actually had to sail here, while the JMSD officers were simply flown in and out of Japan for the ceremony.

Mutsu stopped at a cross section. 'Well I got to gather the rest of the girls and wait for Jersey to wash her face.' She chuckled as she said that. 'Good luck to all of you.'

* * *

'Where the fuck is the guard?' O'Donnell frowned, the red alarm light illuminating him every few seconds.

'Looks like a containment breach...Whatever you do, be silent and don't get bitten.' Smith joked with a stern face, while unlocking the heavy bulkhead leading to the elevator with an iris scan.

'Say what?!' The female SEAL shouted out.

'Will you shut it, Keyes?!' O'Donnell snapped at her.

'It was joke.' Smith chuckled. 'Still, the absence of the guard in the antechamber is alarming, even considering that everyone outside hunkered up in their houses.'

'Well let's hope it's just some tardy soldier.' O'Donnell loaded his rifle, 'Until then, let's assume it is not.' and moved towards the elevator.

The way down was almost felt like an eternity to the people inside the elevator. It was safe to say that the bunker was way below the bay's bottom, and that parts of it might even stretch across it. What really made the SEALs uncomfortable was the heavy bulkhead protecting the elevator earlier on, it begged the question what was actually down there and none of them was too eager to find out, and when the elevator's heavy bulkhead doors opened they knew that their intuition had proved to be on spot.

The antechamber too was illuminated mostly by the same blinking, red alarm light as the upper station and all the bulk heads in front of what was probably bullet proof windows were closed. The floor was clean, and had a large DARPA logo engraved onto it. The most curious thing however was the state of the heavy bulkhead door that lead into the facility, as it had several deformations on its surface, looking like something had tried to break out from the inside, but failed and eventually gave up.

'Are you sure there are no zombies in here, Sir?' Slipped out of the Chief's mouth.

Smith groaned and facepalmed, forcing him to remove his right hand from the rifle for a moment. 'Don't be ridiculous, Greyston. Obviously at least one Abyssal got in from the other entrance.'

'I'd prefer Zombies.' Keyes sighed.

'Then you'll be delighted to hear that the best way to keep them from killing you is shooting their eyes.' Smith sighed. 'Not that it is likely to kill them, but the explosive ammo should at least stun them for some time.' The admiral paused 'Be prepared though, what may lay behind that door could break you... ', and then walked towards the door, and looked up to the turret, which immediately locked onto him.

A computer voice sounded through the room, 'Control room uninhabited, please look into the turret for identity verification.' causing Smith to look at the turret, whose camera instantly went to observe him closely, probably also scanning his iris and face patters at the same time. 'Please state security code.'

'745-Gamma-122-Epsilon-53' Smith answered unfazed by the turret locking onto him.

'Identity and authorization confirmed. Bruce Smith, Admiral. - Opening bulkhead.' The voice from the turret said following by the bulkhead starting to open.

The four of them raised their guns and took position around the door's frame and readied their weapons, O'Donnell pulling Smith next to him. When the door finally opened after a short delay, probably due to the damage it had received earlier, the hallways revealed the true extensity of what has happened inside the bunker.

As expected, the hallway was a complete mess, the floor looked like something has been dragged through blood and the walls showed similar signs of it, such as blood smears indicating someone tried to hold onto the walls with all their might, but eventually failed. This was also accompanied by several bloody shoe prints, which Smith got down do examine. 'Some of those look like they belong to a Wo and a Tsu, the third one could be either a Ri or a Ru. The rest of them probably belong to the soldiers and scientists.'

Keyes pointed at a set of prints 'These indicate someone was shooting with an assault rifle.'

'Wouldn't have guessed that one, with all the bullets holes in the walls.' Greyston teased her, referring to the entire wall sprinkled with them

'Bad news is, the prints lead exactly where we need to go.' Smith frowned. 'Good news is, that it doesn't look like any of them had explosive bullets, so those prints don't necessarily mean our weapons are completely useless.'

O'Donnell spoke up. 'Let's just get this over with, Sir. The sooner we are out of here the better.'

'Agreed. Let's move.'

Although they already had a bad feeling about it, the team decided to make a quick stop at the nearby security room, which was supposed to have opened the door for them earlier. Slowly, O'Donnell approached the door's window and looked through the gaps in the shutter. Though the red alarm lights did a good job of camouflaging it, the walls were splattered with blood, and bullet holes, while other parts seemed to be sprinkled with what looked like a sprinkle of a red-organic mass.

What was even more concerning than the gore, was the absence of actual corpses both inside the room and the hallway, and while one could guess that the organic splatter was in fact human remains, a large portion of those bodies would still be missing.  
Despite being shocked by the gore, they decided to keep moving, as the time window was short and the mission already didn't go as easy as they had hoped for.

After a while of cautiously moving through the base, an eerie sound could be heard, presumably the heavy door they entered from having closed again. The quadruple looked at one another and nodded, understanding that it might be better not to talk unless needed, as the sound might attract company. As they walked on, they became more and more tense with every step they took, due to it being silent - too silent, considering the base's gruesome state suggested that the fight that went down wasn't silent at all.

Smith grunted, by his estimation they should now be well on their way to the vault where the mission objective was stored, however at the same time the time where the majority of the ship girls and the two carriers would engage the Abyssal fleet coming from the west drew closer, and, with it the time the fleet in charge of the harbor would turn the bay into a battlefield. Not that it really mattered though, the Abyssals were obviously already inside the base, and the fight couldn't have been anything but recent going by some of the blood still having been moist. - In other words, no matter how much noise his girls would make outside the bay, it would probably not proof to be much of a distraction to the Abyssals inside, as radio signals inside the bunker were being jammed, and the Abyssals had probably destroyed the base's means of communication when they first assaulted the base.

Eventually the team reached the heavy vault door, and positioned itself. The first thing they noticed was all the turrets that were supposed to guard the place had been shot off the armored concrete the walls were made of, while the surrounding area looked like one of the turrets had shot grenades at whatever assaulted it, accompanied by small caliber holes like a ship's secondary armaments would cause to that specific wall. Looking at the bulkhead itself one could see similar deformations as the ones they encountered earlier, just that the ones here looked like something had tried to get inside rather than out.

Smith sighed and walked towards the bulkhead, removing a carefully hidden panel, using the electronics below it in the turret's stead for identification, causing the motors to spring into action. As expected by the way the damage on the door looked, the motors had to use all their force opening it, causing a metal creaking to sound through the eldritch abandoned bunker. Instantly they went inside, with the two remaining SEALs taking defensive positions in case the sound finally lured the nightmares lurking in the badly light corridors, while O'Donnell followed Admiral Smith on the latter's signal.

Greyston and Keyes looked at each other nervously, each of them standing at the opposite side of the door frame, their guns ready to fire at anything that would dare move into their line of sight.

'I'm telling you, once this mission is over I'm going to get myself sloshed.' Greyston whispered.

'You and me both.' Keyes answered, but her tone quickly turned into a scolding one. 'Now concentrate on the hallway or you're going to get us all killed.'

Meanwhile, another turret, yet again, took an identity check of Smith, but didn't open afterwards.

'Now what' Asked O'Donnell.

As if summoned by him, a noise being loud enough o hear it even outside the vault chamber could be heard, the door being rolled to the side as soon as it was over, much like in a certain, very popular, computer game series, although the crane was less bulky and not in the way.

And indeed, the mechanism that had opened it, could very well remind someone on it. 'Before you ask, it has its own power supply, so we would have gotten in even if they had cut the power from this side.' Smith said before continuing to a wall safe on the other end where he entered a key and looked into an iris scanner again, before he opened the handle and pulled out a black cylindrical electronic device, while O'Donnell set something up in a side room, according to orders the Smith gave him in an envelope earlier that day.

'Done, O'Donnell?' Smith asked impatiently. 'We have overstayed our welcome for far too long already.'

'Everything according to your orders, sir! But why? This door is even thicker than the first.' O'Donnell questioned while the two of them walked out of the vault, the door lock springing into action again soon after and moving to close the door.

'Now.' Smith said when the door was almost completely closed, deliberately ignoring the Team Leader's question, before both of them ran and made clear of the door.

Suddenly the room shook as an explosion could be heard from the other side of the vault door. 'The fuck was that?!' Keyes asked.

'A certain way to erase data when you don't have time to lose.' Smith snapped. 'Now move, go, go, go.'

On Smith's command the group moved out into the hallway. Considering that the Abyssal's had apparently penetrated the facility from Ford Island, they hurried back to the entrance that would lead them back to the navy base it was hidden under.

As they came within forty meters of an intersection, 2 Ru-Class Battleships, without their rigging, suddenly appeared from around the corners. They instantly stopped and moved to turn around, but there a Wo-Class Carrier and a Ri were blocking their way, leaving them no choice but having to decide whether they'd attempt to push past either side.

Just as they had decided to take a risk, and aimed their guns at the Wo, they suddenly heard the sound of two hands coming together as if they were clapping.

'Just how...did you get in here...Just...how?' a long haired woman whose bare white body was only hidden by her extremely long, white hair said, while coming out of the corner, not turning her head towards them. Like all of the Abyssal princesses she was surprisingly beautiful, leaving them speechless for a bit. However, unlike previously recorded princesses, her body seemed partly cracked open, with the majority of the cracks being centered on her thighs, and there were indications of a large crack starting around her collar bone going down to her abdomen, although one couldn't say for sure because her hair was long and full enough to hide most of her body from uninvited views. She too was without her equipment. The glowing red spot on her long white hair were just further proof of her status as an Abyssal princess. 'Thank you...for bringing that out for me...' She continued in a cold tone, while still not looking at them. 'Now...If you would be so kind... to hand it...over...'

Smith's heart rate rose as soon as his mind had fully comprehended the princess' presence, and memories kept flashing in front of his mind. For a moment he was back on that chair, a princess, who later introduced her as airfield princess, softly raising his head by the chin, mocking Smith's interrogator for getting no results despite all the wounds she had inflicted onto Smith while giving the latter a dark grin.

As soon as he snapped out of it a few seconds later he realized that he had to act fast, if he didn't want to relive his previous experience: With the princess behind it, going past the Wo-Class was no longer an option, while the only other way out was past the Ru-Class. Smith turned towards the Ru-Class and frowned, then looked at O'Donnell, who just nodded back, telling the flag officer that he had a rough idea of what he was planning..' You want this?' He said and pressed a button, causing it to beep rapidly. 'Then catch!'

Just a few moments before the device passed the 30-meter mark, they started running towards the two Ru, ignoring the three Abyssals behind them.

'Fools...' The Princess said and turned to give them chase together with the Wo and Ri.

As the device hit the ground, it bursted into a spherical dome made out of pure energy causing them to drop down to the ground, while at the same time O'Donnell threw one of his flashbangs into the hallway behind him, and yet the princess still managed to somehow stumble after them, but quickly regained her balance and started running after them herself.

The chase down the hallway continued as the four humans hastened through the corridor, having long stopped to care whether more Abyssals might lie somewhere ahead. Smith was sure, that they had passed the same distance that took them almost an hour, within the last 15 minutes.

Suddenly Smith saw an emergency bulkhead on the ceiling and an accompanying button not too far from them. Certainly, he knew, the bulkhead was nearly thick enough to permanently stop the Princess, like the heaver bulkhead at the entrance apparently did, but it would at least stop her to give them a few minutes to gain distance. The moment they passed the button Smith stopped abruptly and pressed it, causing the bulkhead in front of them to slowly go down while the red alarm lights where now accompanied by a fitting alarm tone.

When the SEALs realized what Smith had set into motion they sped up their run and made it past the bulkhead without any problems, while Smith was running after them as fast as he could.

The admiral was pleased with his improvised plan, as everything seemed to go according to plan. Then it happened, despite all the training he did, the short pause had disturbed Smith's breathing, causing his eyes to go dark for just long enough to slip in one of the blood pools on the floor, the door continued to go down regardless.

Smith mustered all his remaining strength to push himself off the floor and make his way towards the other side, O'Donnell already having stretched out his hand, ready to pull him to the other side as soon as he was in range, while the bulkhead continued to go down. Smith saw another blood pool, a bit to the side, and changed course towards it, planning to intentionally slip in to gain additional speed, but suddenly got pulled back violently just before his feet could touch the pool.

'The game...is over...' The sharp female voice behind him breathed into his neck, the bulkhead going further down.

'Shit! Admiral!' O'Donnell shouted, now kneeling down.

'Run, that's an order you fools!' Smith shouted, while his lungs burned.

The next few seconds went by in an instant, the bulkhead went down, completely sealing off the area, the SEALs were in, from the one Smith and his captor were. Again, Smith's mind went blank for a second, more memories from the past flashing in front of his eyes. When Smith regained his mind, he was on the floor, the princess having mounted his chest and had both her hands around his neck, applying soft pressure that continued to grow. Unlike with his girls the Abyssal's touch didn't seem to cause nausea in him, as if he was already attuned to the vicious aura they gave off.

The pressure around his neck continued to grow, as the princess tightened her grip, obviously not planning to let him die fast, no matter how much he struggled against her.

For the first time he could get a look at her face, and couldn't help but smiling despite his vision beginning to fade.

When Smith saw the Abyssal's face, he suddenly became content with dying. He no longer had any regrets. Shizuka would get custody over his daughter without further discussion, that was his condition for taking this mission, and he had no doubt the president would keep his word, as he was known for exactly that. Moreover, with his estate Yuki wouldn't have to worry about money for years to come, though he was a bit sad when he realized that he would never see her grow into an adult. Last but not least, as cruel a fate as it might be, the last thing he would see was the face of someone he had missed dearly. 'I... love you...' He rattled, while still smiling happily at the Abyssal. '...Ari...'

Moments before his conscious faded, he felt the Princess' grip slowly loosing strength and a few oily drops dripping down his cheek, and then only darkness remained.

* * *

Next up is a .5 chapter and maybe some **additions** to the prologue.


	6. Chapter 5-5 - A scar full of memories

There was/is a slight hickup with the text here. My google search indicates, that it is a problem on FFs end. Should you still see HTML text mixed up with everything, then I'm still working on it, otherwise the hotfix I found worked. Ch1 1 will get it's promised update once I'm sure it won't turn everything into HTML.

* * *

Arizona moaned softly, when a sun ray somehow managed to target her face through the gaps in the blinds, making her open her eyes in the process. The first thing she saw once her vision had fully returned to her was her boyfriend's sleeping face, something she had never seen before in the morning, as he usually got up before her.

'Looks like I got up before you this time, Admiral ~fufu.' She whispered just as soft as she had groaned earlier while smiling happily, until she turned her face to the clock to check the time.

4:45 am, December 7th, a date that immediately managed to destroy her good mood. _'Thanks for reminding me that I'm just an intruder in his life, world.'_ she thought melancholically and stretched completely unmotivated.

The feeling of just intruding was nothing new to her, in fact, she felt so from the very moment they got together the morning after that year's Christmas party, an occasion where she also learned, that shipgirl's too can't drink as much alcohol as they want without getting drunk. Long story short, after a while she got completely smashed, without even realizing it herself, so Smith took her home and laid her down in the guestroom, since the base was pretty much on the other side of the island.

From there on, things went an expected course.

While Smith was busy bringing his daughter to bed, she snuck into his room and 'gently'pulled him onto the bed the moment he wanted to turn in for the night.

However the worst thing was, that even when she was sober again, and even now, a part of her didn't really care for whether Smith was actually fine with her. All that mattered for that part of her mind was that she managed to get the prize she had already been pushing for a while back then, and there was no reason to care whether it was by free will or dumb law.

And as a matter of fact, even that Smith didn't try to push her off that night and also asked her out, when they were alone in his office the next day, never really stopped her from wondering whether she was actually loved even half as much as told.

After all, she wasn't the only one with a crush on him, both E and Sara started feeling the same way she did, starting from due to the very same event, additionally both of them were not just less pushy and had a much gentler nature, but also didn't get off on the wrong foot with him. Moreover, she was also completely different from how Smith's late wife was, or at least acted.

For a moment she had to smile again, when she thought back to the day she started feeling what female officers claimed to be love.

Very early on, when Smith had barely taken over the base and made it clear that he intended to stay, they didn't understand the reason behind some of his orders during a mission and thus right out ignored them, leading to a lot of them getting so heavily damaged, that one could say they were bleeding out. Of course nowadays this would be less of a problem, as there was much more equipment to transport heavily damaged shipgirls to the docks, but back then equipment like that was still scarce, so the only thing one could do when everything was already in use was removing the rigging and carry them there one by one, and while it doesn't seem like a big issue, there was still the problem that only a few people could touch shipgirls over a prolonged amount of time without passing out, as their spirit energy was too incompatible with a human's energy flow.

In fact, even today only a handful of people would be able to bear it long enough to share a night with them, without first getting used to their energies. Long story short, Smith not only ordered everyone to grab a ship girl and carry them for as far as they could, but had also been the one who had carried most of them there.

Thinking back to that day, Arizona couldn't help but forget her worries for a moment and gently combed through her boyfriends hair. _'Let's see if I can wake you up'_ she thought while smiling seductively for a moment until she tried crawling over him and saw the alarm clock again, the date acting as a complete turn-off to her. _'I hate you, clock'_ She sighed, _'I guess I can at least make him breakfast...'_ and turned the alarm off while looking mischievously towards her boyfriend. _'No getting woken up by the alarm for you, Admiral.'_

Arizona then looked for her clothes, which she had scattered across the room and the bed yesterday, but pretty much everything was too far away to not risk waking Smith up, and despite leaving together here every morning, she still only took a quick shower here, and another one later at the base, where she also still kept her clothes, as she didn't want to risk pissing off Yuki by taking up her late mother's space in the dressers and closet.

After a few tries of fishing for her blouse with her foot, Arizona decided for Smith's shirt as it was closest to her, she also took his boxers, as she was unable to remember whereto she had thrown her own underwear and couldn't find it while scanning the room. Then she gently pushed herself off the bed, making sure she wouldn't wake Smith up. - As both of them were on PTO today, she didn't see a reason to not let him sleep a bit longer for a change, god knew Smith earned it. - Then she bottomed up the two middle button's of the shirt, and left as quietly as she could.

Just as she had left the room, she saw that one of the doors was a gap open, as well as a girl looking through said gap. She then walked over and bent her knees until their eyes where on the same height, looking at her with an extra gentle smile, while carefully brushing a strand of her long hair back.

Although not planned, in addition to how Arizona acted, a few sun rays from a nearby window softly illuminated her face, turning it into a scene most people would probably describe as looking angelic.

'Good morning sweetie.'Arizona said in an extra gentle tone. 'What do you want for-'. Suddenly the door slammed shut in front of her nose, while the girl not only didn't even bother telling her to get lost but also topped it by locking the door. 'breakfast...' She completed her sentence with a sigh, having again been reminded on how she was just intruding into their lives, but still couldn't tell Yuki to deal with it, despite only a part of Arizona actually feeling guilty about it.

After a brief moment of waiting in vain to see whether Yuki might change her mind, she jumped back onto her feet and walked downstairs towards the kitchen, where she got greeted by a delicious smell of grilled fish and omelet. However, just a few moments later, the smell got overshadowed by another, more musty, one, akin to some kind of nutty cheese.

'Eww.' She couldn't help letting out.

'It's called natto, not ''ewww' and it's your loss.' A college-aged Shizuka said while coming into view from the side, but didn't really look at Arizona

Once she got talked to Arizona finally realized, that she was too late to make breakfast and lost the smile, she had put on again for Yuki earlier, now looking disheartened instead. _'Great...'_

'Good morning to you too, Arizona... Having a bad day, or are you just frowning to make me feel bad?' Shizuka asked in an honestly oblivious tone, but quickly fell silent and blushed heavily when she saw Arizona's choice of attire, with the blush continuing to grow into intensity as the young adult thought about what lead to Arizona choosing it.

Arizona on the other hand frowned for a moment, but then forced a smile. 'Bad doesn't begin to describe it.' While Shizuka was indeed pretty much the last person in this house she wanted to be oblivious about her bad mood, she had learned not to let something that had happened so long ago, out on someone born centuries later. Besides, Shizuka too had changed, and was also no longer the same teenager who'd hide behind Admiral Smith just from being glared at.

Suddenly, Arizona realized how Shizuka started to turn red while looking at her and the smile she had put on turned into an impish grin for a moment. - The girl just asked Arizona to tease her, and doing so would certainly improve the dreadnought's mood.

However, instead Arizona just coughed it off, and decided to be mature instead of causing the girl to burn breakfast by overdoing it. 'Yes, we had sex last night and his clothes were the closest to the door. Stuff like that happens.' Arizona told her bluntly, in her usual haughty tone. 'Now, can you please snap out of it and step aside, so I can at least make my boyfriend some coffee?'.

Suddenly a bubbling sound emerged from behind the college student, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee emerged and filled the room as the black brew made it's way through the family sized mocha pot, causing Arizona to groan and let herself fall into a nearby chair, only to curse frustrated 'Great, I'm not just intruding into everyone's lives, I can't even make my boyfriend a damn cup of coffee the one day I wake up before him.'

'He choose to be with you, you know.' Shizuka suddenly said calmly, while lowering her head just enough for her hair to put a shadow above her mouth, hiding that she softly bit her lip in frustration while saying it.

'You do realize that his daughter hates me, do you?' Arizona held her forehead with thumb, middle and pointer finger. 'She literally slammed the door into my face earlier.' the battleship complained frustrated.

'Well if you want her to get used to you, you should start by not talking to her while wearing her dad's underwear.' Shizuka couldn't help but scold, 'She can probably already hear you, when she has to go to the toilet, the last thing she want's is to see you dressed in her father's boxers. And for god's sake please stop calling her sweetie.'

'The alternative was going out naked, besides you call her ''sweetie'' too.' the battleship defended herself weakly, but then suddenly blushed herself 'Wait she can hear us?!'

'Only if she walks by the door, I'll get new seals later today, but I can, and while it's hot I'd appreciate if you could turn your voice down until I'm in Harvard.' Shizuka continued her lesson. 'Also of course I'm allowed to call her that, I'm her awesome and cute and caring elder sister, while you-'

'I'm too young to be called an aunt. I say big sister, so big sister it is' Shizuka commanded, before continuing her lecture. 'where was I... Oh yeah I'm her cute and caring elder sister, while you are the evil witch who is stealing her father away.'

'Great.' Arizona frowned. 'Now I'm an evil witch too.'

'Just give her some space, and wait with the pet names until she can at least tolerate you.' Shizuka sighed. 'It's not easy for her either, you know? She is a total mommy child, and wasn't even allowed to say goodbye properly, that hurts not matter how many years pass. And let's not forget how she found out about you two, following by you basically moving in a few months later.' Shizuka recounted. 'Also, starting next semester, I'll be gone for most of the year too. Harvard isn't exactly around the corner, you know?' She then sighed again, realizing that only criticizing was probably pointless. 'Just give her some space for now and make sure she doesn't feel left out.' Shizuka then tasted her cooking and added a few herbs. 'Oh, and perhaps it would be a good idea to get tolerated before you start working on getting accepted.'

'Morning.' Smith yawned as he suddenly entered half-asleep in his morning mantle and walked over to the coffee pot to pour some coffee into one of the mugs Shizuka had already added milk into earlier.

'Morning, Admiral.' Arizona sighed when she saw him getting the coffee himself.

'Morning, 'Shizuka greeted added in her usual teasing tone 'Onii~San. Could you please wake up Yuki? Breakfast is almost ready.'

'Could you stop calling me that?' Smith snorted while walking back upstairs. 'I didn't think it was cute when you were a teenager and I don't think it is now.' He said loud enough for her to hear, while climbing the stairs.

'And since we are at it,' Shizuka said once Smith was out of hearing range. 'I get how you girls like chirping ''Admiral, this and Admiral that'' the entire day, as if you were sparrows, but you are his girlfriend, just call him by his name. I'm sure he told you that before.'

Arizona didn't have a retort for that, as the young adult was basically right. Despite that they've been together for a while now, Arizona still addressed him with 'Admiral' the entire time, despite having been asked not to. It's not that she didn't want to, it was more an issue of 'old habits die hard', since she had addressed him as 'Admiral' for almost a decade. Besides, Yuki was rather docile when someone went to get her for breakfast, as long as it wasn't Arizona that is.

The rest of the morning went as usual. As always, Yuki demonstratively sat down between her parent and her aunt the moment she came in, while also placing herself as far away from Arizona as possible. Smith read his newspaper, while both eating and drinking, making the only form of communication coming from him grunts. Arizona on the other hand, even though generally enjoying Shizuka's cooking, would silently contemplate how ill fish and coffee fit together for breakfast and wondered how Smith ever got used to it.

As soon as they were done, eating everyone went into their bathrooms to take a quick shower before Smith would drive Yuki to school and Shizuka to college. However, as Smith took a few vacation days and somehow managed to squeeze some out for Arizona too, they would drive home afterwards, instead of to the base.

'I'll stay here today, if that's alright.' Arizona forcefully smiled, having other plans than an awkward care ride, that wasn't really necessary.

'Huh, why?' Smith inquired.

'I don't get to go into the city often, so I thought I'd go for a stroll today.' Arizona lied. 'Can I?'

'I'm not sure that is such a good idea, Ari.' Smith said reluctantly.

'Pretty please with a cherry on top of it?' Arizona said, making her best impression of puppy eyes, which caused Yuki to roll her eyes.

'Just let her.' Yuki scoffed. 'If we are lucky she'll actually get lost. At the very least, we won't have to suffer her presence during the ride.'

To Arizona's surprise, that still stung. Of course she was aware that it has been a long time since Yuki was the toddler, Arizona, and the others, gently rocked into sleep when Smith brought her to the base, but recently the girl always managed to find new ways to put insult to injury.

'Yuki!' Smith bellowed. 'Why can't you be as well behaved as always, when Ari is around?!'

'What, would you rather have me lie?'

'That's it young lady.' Smith finally lost his patience, while Shizuka joined in making them speak in unison for a moment. 'You are grounded'

'Bu-' Yuki winced.

'And if I hear one more word from you, I'll not only let you out at the front gate, I'll give you a big smooch to the forehead in front of all your friends, is that clear?'

'You can't do that, that's embarrassing!' Yuki complained.

'Too bad for you that it is every parent's sovereign right to embarrass their misbehaving child.' Smith answered coldly. 'Now get into the car and no more word.' He then turned to his girlfriend, and his expression softened again. 'Honestly I'd rather have you stay at home...' He sighed and put 300 USD from his briefcase into her hands. '... I guess I can't lock you in, the entire day, either. Just don't buy tons of food at the same place if you get hungry, and save some for a taxi, in case you actually get lost.'

'Don't worry, I won't be out for long.' she hugged Smith and smiled a bit again. 'Besides, I'm not a child. If I actually get lost I'll just use a phone booth.'

'I don't think there are still as many phone booths around as you think...' Smith chuckled. 'Take care. I love you.'

As soon as the car departed, Arizona walked over to a chair and let herself fall into it for a moment, thinking about whether she should change from the summer dress, she had changed into earlier, to her uniform. After a bit of thinking she sighed and went to get her uniform, otherwise she'd just get the dress dirty where she planned on going.

* * *

'You missed the junction to Yuki's school, Bruce.' Shizuka noted.

'I know.' He answered without even glancing at her. 'I'm putting you off first today.'

After that, silence once again befell the interior of the car. Smith was concentrated on the road, so he didn't talk, Shizuka was, as usual, busy with her smartphone and Yuki was still pouting for being told off earlier, making the engine's noise the most prominent sound in the cabin.

When the car finally stopped, Shizuka put her hand on Smiths shoulder and moved her head closer to whisper in his ear, 'Don't be too hard on her, OK?' before she left and waved to her friends only to run over shortly afterwards.

Smith sighed. 'The door!' he complained after her, but decided to let the car run idle for a moment and leaned over to close it himself, before he brought the car back into motion.

'Is it really asked from you to behave as well as usual even if Arizona is around?' Smith broke the silence after a while, without looking back. 'You used to love playing with her, you know?'

'That was before you two started cheating on mom.' Yuki spat back.

'Will you stop with this bullshit already?!' Smith shouted against the windshield, but then took a deep breath to calm down. 'Look Yuki, getting into a new relationship years after your partner dies is not cheating, it's getting on with your life.'

'Mum hated her! And you are just with her because you have to be. Also language!'

'If that was true I'd never bring her home... In fact, I'm going to ask her to marry me.'

'You what?!' Yuki shrieked.

'You heard me very well, I'm going to marry her.'

'How about asking me?!'

'I'm neither asking you for permission nor your blessing.' Smith said firmly. 'I am informing you.'

'So you are just going to forget about mom, are you?!' Yuki started sniffing while tears began to emerge from her eyes.

'As if I'd ever do that...' Smith tried to concentrate on the traffic in front of him, while his tone turned melancholic 'And you know what, Yuki... There hasn't been a single day, ever since she died, where I didn't wish everything was just some kind of bad dream, but that's not how the world works.' He then smiled a bit again. 'I knew your mother for a long time, and the last thing she would have wanted is either of us being miserable for the rest of our lives.'

'Stop trying to justify that you are replacing her!'

'I'm not replacing anyone.' Smith sighed annoyed and then paused. 'Listen, I miss her too, OK? But you have to get used to her not coming back. And frankly I don't know how to get that into your head anymore.'

'Onee-San...'Yuki suddenly babbled.

'Hmm?'

'If you just have to have someone at least take Nee-San!' Yuki shouted, causing Smith to loose concentration for a second. The next thing that could be heard wasn't Smith's answer, but the screeching of the car's breaks hitting the tires, as Smith hit the breaks hard to avoid crashing into the car in front of him, barely avoiding collision. Luckily there were no other cars behind them, or there would have been an accident.

'Are you out of your mind?' Smith breathed out in relieve for there having been no accident and resumed participating in the traffic normally.

'Says the one who almost crashed the car, dad?' Yuki answered defiantly.

'Just let me get some things straight here, Yuki: Not only is your Aunt my wife's baby sister, but also about half as old as me. She was about your age when I married your mother, OK?'

'Nee-San isn't a child anymore though. You two get along well, and mom wouldn't mind either.' Yuki kept weeping but then wiped the tears out of her face.

'Your mom would, and as would we.' Smith said as he pulled over near the school and brought the car to a halt. 'By the way, even though class starts early today, I still expect you to come home right after school. You are still grounded.'

* * *

Arizona walked along the street near the lake, and was honestly surprised on how little she stuck out of the few humans she had met, despite all that she had done was putting some of her more daily-basis gear off, and, apparently her boots were also still inconspicuous enough for no one to notice, despite having rudders on them.

As she walked on, she never let Hudson Bay out of her sight. Not that there was a chance of actually getting lost in the first place, as she didn't intend to leave Ford Island, and even though it looked quite different from her time, there really wasn't much to see there.

She still wasn't very far from where she started from, and had just taken a turn from Lexington Blvd into Langley Ave which she was now walking along.

It wouldn't be long now until she would reach the small clearing near the coastline, right after Langley Ave takes a curve.

Just a few minutes later she walked past the bus station towards the coast line and looked right towards the rusty structure that stuck out of the water before she stepped off the coast right into the water and slowly sailed away as soon as the water was deep enough for her engines to take over from her leg movement.

Arizona then sailed towards the white structure, that has been erected above the sunken vessel. Despite that people had seen her, no one actually seemed to notice her. It looked like she had completely vanished into her surroundings as soon she had reached her site marker. Next Arizona sailed around the wreckage, to the platform, that connected that entrance to the memorial, and ''docked there''. For a brief moment her eyes met with the large battleship on her left and wondered how she would look should she ever become a ship girl.

At least as a ship girl Arizona wasn't too small herself, and everyone who saw her would clearly identify her as an adult, but she couldn't help but thinking, that girl might actually hit her head on door frames were she ever to get summoned.

Purging the thoughts about the _Missouri_ out of her mind she continued on into the structure and walked towards the opening in the ground, where she leaned over the railing.

Arizona l first looked towards the memorial wall and then down at her hull where she became lost in thought. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her head and moved her right hand to her cranium, shortly before images and echoing voices started to fill her mind.

Sailors running through the corridors, trying to reach battle stations, while, at the same time, explosions filled the hallways.

She could hear moans full of agony coming from people with severed limbs, while others were buried under collapsed sections.

More than that, she could actually smell the mixture of burned skin and smoke fill her surroundings.

All of a sudden, she started to rue coming here, wishing she had just sat down at the marker or the pier, next to the remaining turret tower, instead where she would go when coming here.

It didn't take too long until she started feeling nauseous, but when Arizona decided to walk away her legs wouldn't move.

In the distance she could hear someone call out to her.

'Ari!' She heard again and was suddenly forcefully turned around.

Once she could no longer see the water, she almost immediately regained her senses, although still seemed confused. On her left shoulder she could feel a hand, probably what had turned her around. Her vision was blurred by tears, feeling like salt water mixed with oil. She raised her head to look into the face of the man standing in front of her.

'Admiral...What are you doing here?' She sobbed with a confused look.

'What am I doing here?' He said with a worried look. 'It's been almost an hour since I brought Yuki to school, I already thought you actually got lost.'

'Ehhh?' She said and turned her left wrist around to look at her clock, a gift she had received from the Smith several years ago, and indeed, according to the clock she had been standing here for at least an hour, it was now 0735. 'But I've been here just for a few minutes.' She whispered, still sounding profoundly confused.

'Let's get you some fresh air for a bit, shall we?' Smith first gently pulled, and then pushed, her away from the pool towards the exit.

'How are you even here already...' Ari looked leaned against him while walking.

'Almost no traffic... And well being an admiral has it's advantages, you know. For example, if your shipgirl girlfriend gets herself into trouble, you can easily get a motor boat, if you got an idea where she might be.'

'I wasn't in trouble!' Arizona exclaimed, while closing her eyes and raising her head, also giving him an outraged look, shortly before she lost her balance and fell right against Smith's shoulder.

'That's probably also why you feel as if your reactor is about to explode.' Smith joked when realizing how hot her skin felt, before put his arm around her shoulder and demonstratively wiped her tears out of her eyes with the other.

Arizona on the other hand was much less amused than Smith and pushed herself off his shoulder, as soon as they reached the docking platform and stumbled towards a railing facing the _Missouri_ , where she suddenly took off her boots and sat down, legs crossed and half submerged in the water. It didn't take long until she felt Smith's hand on her left shoulder, causing her head to move on its own to rest on it.

The Battleship kept looking towards the Missouri. Tears started dripping down her eyes again, as she thought about her crews last minutes and all the suffering they had to endure. Just thinking about it caused her heart to ache, while she started to actually press Smith's hand down so he couldn't let go. _'Right...There is someone else suffering because of me...'_ She thought and spoke up in a melancholic tone while tears kept dripping out of her eyes. 'You don't have to do that anymore, you know.'

'Hm?' Smith grunted.

'You can stop being nice to me. I know that you are just together with me because you have to.'

'The heck are you talking about?'

'Stop denying it already!' She cried out in frustration. 'You just have to suffer me because I got drunk and pinned you down, and then made a fuss about it the other day! Just admit it already and stop pretending you love me!'

Smith sighed. 'That again? I thought we talked about that like... I don't know, the day afterwards?' He then used his other hand to pat her head. 'Yeah, I didn't expect you to sneak up on me and pull me into the bed, so what? Don't you think I would have pushed you off if I had actually minded?'

'You don't get it, do you?!' Arizona grit her teeth and suddenly shot out of the water, causing Smith to fall back, followed by Arizona crawling over him and pinning him down with one hand on his chest, while the other fixated his wrist. 'Let me tell you something about that night, OK?! I didn't give a shit whether I had your consent or not! And you know what? If it hadn't happened back then it would have happened a few weeks later without any ethanol at all.' Arizona said in a self-loathing voice, while her tears dripped onto Smith's face. 'I'm still the same selfish, haughty bitch, who tried treating you like her servant for pushing her into the water! Oh, and don't think I'm letting you off the hook, just because you no longer have to pretend, you are still mine!' Arizona forced out of herself without actually meaning it, just to underline her point.

'Ari...Calm down already and list-' he started, secretly wondering why no one was paying them any mind at all.

'Shut up, I don't want to hear it! I can't even bring you your damn coffee in the morning, because I feel like its beneath me, and have some other girl do it for me. Oh, and your daughter hates my guts too.' Then paused before she continued. 'I can't even bear a child, goddammit, so stop pretending you are in love with me already.'

Smith exhaled and used his free hand to get a small box out of his pocket, which he flipped open nonchalantly, ignoring her when she questioned what he was doing. 'Marry me.'

'Ehh?' the battleship cheeped in surprise.

'I actually wanted to do this during our date later, but I guess I won't have a girlfriend anymore by then if I don't do it now.' And continued before she could regain her composure. 'I daresay that I'm a good judge of character, and the Arizona you described is nothing like girl in front of me. Sure she can be a bit haughty from time to time, making people wonder whether she thinks of herself as being above them, but she would never treat someone like her servant.' He said while raising his upper body a bit when Arizona's grip got weaker and gently raised her back up until she sat straight with spread knees. 'Sometimes her hugs are a bit lethal when she is happy, but she is a really gentle person and I have no reservations entrusting her with my daughter, whose insufferable behavior she patiently endures. And the only thing about our relationship I regret is that I ever made her doubt that I love her.' He then smiled and looked deep into her eyes.

Arizona still looked at him with teary eyes, while her head started ringing. 'Stop lying already. If you love me so much, why did I ever have to be your girlfriend in the first place?! You were the one who didn't want to marry me, remember?'

'All I said is that I wanted to get to know you better first, so let me take that stone off your chest already. If I'd really think you are such a horrible person, I wouldn't let you anywhere near Yuki or Shizuka.' Smith sighed. 'And since we are talking about day zero... I was the one who dragged you to that party, and it was also me who decided on letting you sleep in the guest room instead bringing you back to the base.' He then took a deep breath to get some air. 'Just because you sneaked into my room, doesn't mean I had anything against spending that night with you. Also, I don't buy that you didn't care, you know why? You still cared enough to ease your grip, just because you thought that my wrist might hurt. And believe me, as drunk as you were, pushing you off would have been easy, had I actually wanted." Smith exhaled another time and looked deep into her eyes. 'So would you mind stop being a drama queen, and tell me whether I can put that ring on your finger instead?'

Arizona turned her head to the side, to avoid his gaze. 'What about your daughter? Also I'm still...'

'I already told her that I'll marry you, no ifs and no buts. The girl is just missing her mom... It's a phase, and she'll grow out of it.' Smith explained, while looking lost in thought for a second, before he snapped out of it. 'And for the other matter, if you really want one we can tackle that issue later, it's not like I'm anywhere near dying of old age yet.' Smith joked, 'Plus, I already got Yuki, so it's not like you need to force yourself.'

This time, instead of answering, she threw him back onto the floor, threw herself onto him, and hugged him as hard as she could, while snuggling her head into his chest.

'Ari, hugging strength.' Smith gasped while tapping out against her back.

'Just let it happen for a bit...' She cried happily and took another 30 seconds to ease her hug. 'Will you put it on already?'

The first thing Smith did, was inhaling as much air as he could, before he kissed her. 'Can I at least redo the entire proposal, without you holding me down?"

'No redoes, you jerk.' Arizona chuckled while getting back into her previous knee-sitting position, now holding her left hand out to him, while also wiping her tears away with her right hand's pointer finger. 'Just so you know, I won't let you wait it out and then cancel.'

'As if I'd ever do that.' Smith laughed, while putting the ring on Arizona's finger.

With the ring finally on her finger, Arizona pushed herself up, before pulling Smith back on his feet, turning around towards the _Missouri_ , believing her to be a witness of the occasion and wanting to show her, that even as a ship girl she could find a bit of happiness.

For a moment the world around them seemed serene, until Arizona's expression suddenly changed to that of a someone who just had a shocking realization, but she quickly changed it back and smiled at her fiance, shortly before she gave him a strong push, that sent him flying.

'Catch.' she said with a sad smile, apparently not talking to him, but rather someone behind him.

The next events took place within just a few seconds. Smith could see Arizona's lips moving, but couldn't hear what she said, while in the meantime he was flying towards the _Missouri_.

Then, something hit Arizona and caused multiple explosions around her, completely obliterating the wooden dock she stood on just a few seconds ago.

Next, Arizona lost her balance and fell backwards into the charred debris of the wooden port, while another bomb hit her leg. Smith could see an expression of agony in the shipgirl's eyes as she looked towards Smith, seemingly more worried about him than herself.

While it was impossible for Smith to actually see what it was, a piece of Arizona's rudder flew right towards him, eventually hitting him right when the force of Arizona's push had finally lessened enough for him to descend closer towards the water surface.

Instinctively Smith closed his eyes, just a moment before the hot piece of metal grazed him. A sharp pain ran through his skin as the hot piece of metal ran tore the skin near his left eye, followed by the feeling of his skin being burned away right where the metal hat cut him just a moment before. A moment later, Smith hit the water and began sinking.

Although it took him a few seconds to gather his strength, Smith quickly returned to the surface, ignoring the pain of the salty water meeting his still fresh wound.

When he finally surfaced he took a deep breath, and pressed his left eye shut, while also instinctively trying to wipe the water off his wound.

Then he looked around, searching for his fiance while the pain from the wound on his left eye, and the salt water in his right one, slowly caused him to loose consciousness. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find her.

With his last remaining strength Smith swam towards the pier where some museum workers fished him out of the water. He looked towards the memorial for a final time, before his vision faded, the last thing he saw being the fires around the wrecked ship, and the dark smoke ascending from there, before he finally lost consciousness.

* * *

While I said before, that I don't like describing shipgirls that have yet to appear too much, I had to set this mindset of mine aside for this chapter and make clear that the Arizona is clearly identifiable as an adult. The reason for this is Colorado only being ~162cm in KC, while her real life counterpart is only slightly longer than Arizona.

Just for comparison, Yamato's and Iowa's height should be somewhere around 191cm. This number is not as random, as it looks. While I did want them to have an intimidating height, Yamato's is actually calculated from figurine measurements I found on the internet, while Iowa's original artwork suggests that she is slightly taller.


End file.
